164 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON A [June 7, 



of Ballynahinch Castle, Co. Galway, in the Mfumbiro district, on 

 a volcanic mountain west of Kiva, on the borderland between the 

 Congo Free State and German East Africa, in forest at an elevation 

 of between 7000 and 8000 feet. These specimens I cannot identify 

 with any described form, and therefore propose to regard them as 

 representing a new race of African Buffalo. 



Although I cannot find Mfumbiro in any atlas, I take the 

 district in question to be the area lying between the Albert 

 Nyanza and Tanganyika, that is to say, approximately, the Mapi 

 country. 



The following note on the Buffalo to which the specimens 

 belonged has been communicated by Mr. Mathews : — 



" The hide of this animal is not bare like that of the South- 

 African Buffalo, but covered with a dense crop of black hair all 

 over. The height of the buffalo is considerably less than that of 

 the big South and East African races. The animal seems to me 

 to be a race midway between the Congo and the East- African 

 Buffalo. It shows, however, no tendency to red. In addition to 

 its small size, peculiar shape of horns, and density of pelt, the 

 only peculiarity I noticed was that the tail had a white tip. I 

 shot another bull out of the same herd, exactly like the one 

 of which I sent you the skull, only younger and smaller." 



The skull and horns are evidently those of a fully-adult bull, 

 and the latter present the following measurements : — 



Along outer curve 2 1 • 5 inches. 



Basal girth 19'7 „ 



Greatest span 25*5 ,, 



Tip to tip interval 15-0 „ 



Compared with the various local forms included in my work on 

 'Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats,' under the specific title of Bos 

 (Buhtdihs) caffer, the skull and horns of the present form come 

 nearest to those of B. coffer nanus of the Congo region. They 

 are, however, considerably larger than the lattei' ; and the horns 

 (text-fig. 31, p. 165) are thicker, less sharply incurved, and with a 

 much more sinuous front surface, bending sharply backwards 

 immediately behind the basal frontal expansion, and then curving 

 somewhat forwards with the commencement of the inward 

 inclination. An interval of about an inch and a half separates 

 the two horns in the middle of the forehead. Speaking generally, 

 these appendages are intermediate between those of the Cape and 

 those of the Congo Buffalo, although on the whole nearer to the 

 latter. Here it may be mentioned that there is an almost complete 

 gradation, as regards the extent of the frontal sinuosity, from the 

 horns of the Cape Buffalo through those of the present and the 

 Congo foirnis, to the Senegambian race {B. caffer j^^'^niceros), in 

 which this curvature is practically obsolete. 



From the typical red Congo Buffalo {B. c. names) the present 

 form differs by its deep-black coat, whereby it agrees with the 

 Cape animal, from which, however, it is broadly distinguished by 

 the dirty-white tail-tuft. In reference to Mr. Mathews's note, 



