992 MR. n. LYDEKKER ON [June 14, 



3. On Three African Buffaloes. 

 By R. Lydekker *. 



[Received May 12, 1910.] 



(Text-figures 145-148.) 



In the present communication I take the opportunity of giving 

 iigures of the heads or horns of tlnee races of African Buffaloes, 

 two of which, in my opinion, indicate types distinct from any 

 of those described by Dr. P. ISIatscliie in his paper on the local 

 forms of African Buffaloes published in the ' .Sitzungsberichte 

 Ges. Naturfor.,' Berlin, 19UG. 



1. Bos CAFFER xniERRYi Matsclue. 



As announced in the ' Daily Telegi-aph ' of December 30th, 

 1909, Dr. K. W. Kumm, during his journey through equatorial 

 Africa from Lake Chad to Wau, obtained evidence of the existence 

 in the Upper 8hari Valley of -what he at the time regarded as a 

 new Buffalo. This portion of the Shari Valley, it may be well to 

 mention, is situated in the French Congo, somewhat to the north- 

 ward, so far as I can determine from the narrative, of an east- 

 and-west line connecting Adamawa, in the German Cameruns, 

 with the British station of Wau, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The 

 single tropliy of tliis Shari Buffalo brought home (and pi-esented 

 to the British Museum) by Dr. Kumm con.sists of the frontlet and 

 horns of an adult, but not aged, bull (text-ffg. 145). The animal 

 to which the specimen belonged appears to have been killed at a 

 comjtaratively recent date, but not, I should .say, by a European ; 

 and the long, sharp tips of the horns afford decisive evidence as 

 to its relative age. 



In the fact that they are situated throughout their length 

 almost in one plane, coupled with the great length of the slender, 

 cvlindrical tips, which exceeds that of the basal portion, and the 

 right angle formed by the junction of these two portions with one 

 another, the Shari horns accord with the pair from the interior 

 of Togoland, German West Africa, described and figured by 

 Dr. Matschie on page 172, fig. 3, of the paper already cited, under 

 the name of Babalus thierryi. The Shari horns are, however, 

 much deeper in the antero-posterior direction at their bases, 

 wheie they are more expanded and ilattened, and also nuich more 

 closely approximated in the miildie line than in the type of 

 ihierrt/i. The latter is, however, a tVmale, and this being so, 

 there seems no reason why the Shaii hoi-ns should not pertain to 

 the same race. Acconliugly, despite the long intei-val between 

 the localities where the two specimens were ol)tained, there seems 

 no possibility of separating the Sliari hoiiis from thierriji, and J 

 therefore associate them provisionally with that race. 



• Published by permission of the Trustcos of tiic British Museum. 



