236 MR. R, LYDEKKER ON 



in my mind that both are referable to full-grown cows, as was 

 considered to be the case by Sir V. Brooke. The male of the 

 Lake Chad race I take to be represented by a frontlet and horns 

 _^(the latter in a worm-eaten condition) brought by Captain H. 

 Cock from Northern ISTigeria, some distance to the east of 

 Kontago, or Kontagora, and presented by him to the Museum 

 in 1904. The Dwarf BuJSaloes met with during the Alexander- 

 Gosling Expedition* from Nigeria to the Sudan in the Shari 

 Valley and on an island in the upper Ubangui (a skull of one of 

 which from the locality last named is in the Museum) likewise 

 appear to be referable to this race. Two cows are described as 

 being respectively rich and dull tawny, with black legs, black 

 fringes to the ears, and black tail-tips ; while the one bull was 

 dull tawny with similar black points. Dwarf Buffaloes shot by 

 Gen. P. S. Wilkinson in Northern Nigeria on the Benue River, 

 near Abiusi, have been noticed by Mr. Pocock f. Of these an old 

 bull was jet-black, Avhile an apparently younger animal of the 

 same sex is described as red, which is no doubt the equivalent of 

 the rich tawny in the account given in Boyd Alexander's book 

 of the male buffalo from the Ubangui, which may likewise have 

 been comparatively young. The cows of the Benue herd appear 

 to have been all red or bright khaki-coloured. 



Here it may be mentioned that the head of a Buffalo from the 

 interior of French Congo, described and figured by myself on 

 page 996 of the Society's 'Proceedings' for 1910 as that of an 

 immature male (as it was stated to be by the donor), is really that 

 of an adult cow, as is indicated by the condition of the bases of 

 the horns, which, like those of the type specimens of B. c. hrachy- 

 ceros, are fvilly formed and incapable of further growth. 



From the cow of the Gambian race this head (text-fig. 42) 

 differs by the absence of an orange tawny area on the throat and 

 the more rufous colour of the hair, as well as by the much more 

 upward direction and greater incurving of the horns. In the 

 latter respect it is more like the cow, figured on page 321 of the 

 above-mentioned volume of Brehm's 'Tierleben,' and said to be 

 from the Congo, but differs by the much larger amount of black 

 on the ear-fringes. The associated body-skin is wholly rufous, 

 with the exception of a black dorsal stripe ; the shanks being 

 also dark. Unfortunately it is not known from what part of the 

 interior of French Congo this Buffalo was obtained ; but if it 

 came from a place well to the east, there seems no reason why 

 it should not be within the distributional area of B. c. cottoni, 

 to which race it was provisionally assigned in the original 

 description. It is possible, however, that it may belong to 

 B. c. iiamos. 



As regards B. c. nam(,s, I take this race, which is typified by 

 the well-known frontlet and horns in the Museum, to be also 



* See Boyd Alexander, ' From the Niger to the Nile,' vol. ii. p. 394, 1907. 

 t 'The Field,' vol. cxix. April 5, 1912. 



