CHAPTER XVI. 



THE BUFFALO. 



BUBALUS ARNI. 

 Generally throughout India. — Ban Bhains. — Arnd. In Bengal. — Mains. 



SOME naturalists have endeavoured to make out that there are two distinct varieties, 

 if not separate species, of Buffalo in India. 



The alleged difference, however, I believe, consists more in the usual shape and size, 

 of the horns than in anything else, and is certainly not sufficient to warrant their receiving 

 different scientific names. 



The Assam Buffalo has been distinguished as B. macroceros, and that from the Central 

 Provinces as B. spiroceros ; the horns of the former, being, as a rule, longer and straighter 

 than those of the latter. 



I believe that the Buffalo is not now found to the west of Philibi't, but it extends east- 

 wards all along the Terai as far as Assam, in which province it is extremely abundant. It is 

 also to be met with in suitable localities on the banks of many of the great rivers and 

 swamps in Bengal Proper, and immense herds inhabit the unreclaimed portions of the 

 Sunderbuns. 



The Buffalo of Bengal and Assam is the only one I have shot, and he requires but 

 little description : everyone has seen a tame Buffalo, and the wild one only differs from the 

 tame species in his superior size, greater plumpness and roundness, and the thickness and 

 length of his formidable horns. 



Although immensely massive and powerful, the Buffalo stands on short legs, and does 

 not measure so much in height as his vast bulk would lead one to suppose. An ordinary 

 full-grown bull measures fifteen hands at the shoulder, and I doubt if any measure over sixteen 

 hands at the outside. 



The color is a dark bluish grey, deepening to nearly jet black in old bulls, whose shiny 

 hides are frequently nearly devoid of hair. The legs, below the knees and hocks, are of a 

 dirty greyish white. 



The horns of the bull are usually about eight feet in length, measured from tip to tip across 

 the forehead and round the outside of the curve, and about sixteen inches in circumference at 

 the base. Many horns far exceed these measurements, and I have heard, on the best authority, 



