240 ON DWARF BUFFALOES. 



small race of Bos caffer in which old bulls are often dusky coloured 

 or blackish, with a well-defined bright orange tawny area on the 

 throat and chest, while adult cows are khaki -coloured, with an 

 orange fringe on the upper mai-gin of the ears, and a dusky 

 tinge on the middle of the lower part of the face ; the horns in 

 both sexes being relatively small and lying mainly in one 

 plane. 



That these South Nigerian Buffaloes are racially distinct from 

 B. c. planiceros and B. hrachyceros seems abundantly clear ; their 

 i-elationship being nearer to the former than to the latter. 

 They are also distinct from B. c. sinipsoni, in which both sexes 

 are blackish. 



That they differ from B. c. centralis, as represented by the type 

 horns and the two animals figured by Brehm, seems sufficiently 

 apparent ; and their horns are likewise different in type from 

 those of Dr, Matschie's B. c. thierryi from Togoland. 



On distributional grounds the South Nigerian Buffalo is un- 

 likely to be identical with B. c. cottoni of the Semliki, and perhaps 

 the interior of the French Congo ; but to remove any doubt on 

 this point it may be mentioned that in the horns of the type 

 bull of that race (which came from Kasindi, at the north-west 

 corner of Lake Albert Edward, and is preserved in Major Powell 

 Cotton's Museum at Quex Park, Birchington) the outside span 

 is 33| inches, against 21 in Mr. Hunt's Nigerian bull, while 

 the palm-width in the former is 10 inches, against 7\ in the 

 latter. Moreover, the Semliki bull stood 57^^ inches at the 

 shoulder, whereas an adult Nigerian bull shot by Major Arnold 

 measured only 44 inches. B. c. cottoni cannot therefore be 

 termed a Dwarf Buffalo. 



As the South Nigerian Buffalo cannot apparently be identified 

 with any of the named races, I propose to call it Bos {Buhalus) 



caffer hunti [P. Z. S. Abstract, 1912, p. 6 (February 25th)], taking 



the head of the cow presented to the Museum (text- fig. 44) 

 as the type. 



The occurrence of this race of Buffaloes in Southern Nigeria 

 renders it practically certain that an adult bull Buffalo from 

 Ashanti pi-esented to the Museum by Mr. C. Beddington in 1900, 

 and hitherto identified with B. c. nanus, cannot belong to a race 

 inhabiting the Congo. Since, moreover, the fringe of hair 

 on the ears is much less abundant, and the horns are con- 

 siderably less closely approximated at the tips than in the type 

 of nanus, I propose to make this bull the type of a new race, 

 under the name Bos (Bubalus) caffer heddingtoni [P. Z. S. Abstract, 



1912, p, 6 (February 25th)]. The height at the shoulder is 

 51 J inches, the outside length of the horns 20|, the palm-width 

 6|, the tip-to-tip interval 13|, and the outside span 23| inches. 

 There is no dark dorsal stripe, which apparently occurs in nanus. 

 In conclusion I give the following tentative " key " to the 

 named races of West African Dwarf Buffaloes in which the colour 

 of the coat is known :^ 



