ORDER RUMINANTIA. 393 



the intermixture of both, would it fully determine that both 

 form only one original species. What forms a species, and 

 what a variety, is, as yet, far from well understood. 



The Bhain of India may be regarded as the true stock of 

 the Domestic Buffaloes of Southern and Western Asia, 

 North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Little doubt can be 

 raised, that in India that animal was first subdued, per- 

 haps, by means of the intelligence and powers of the Ele- 

 phant, who alone could compel it to subjection ; from 

 thence, commerce or remote military expeditions seem to 

 have introduced it into Tartary and Eastern Persia, till by 

 either of these means the Domestic Buffalo was found on 

 the shores of the Caspian. Here they resided at the time 

 of the Macedonian invasion, though the Tartars seem to 

 have used their Busan as beasts of burden, at least, as 

 early, and about that period, or soon after, to have led 

 them to the banks of the Tereck. They were found by 

 the Mahomedan Arabs in Persia, and during their wars 

 brought westward into Syria, and Egypt. Baron Cuvier, 

 with his accustomed research, proves the pilgrims and wri- 

 ters concerning Palestine to have noticed them by the name 

 of Buflus, early in the eighth century, and we have already 

 seen at what period they reached Italy. 



The stature of the Buffalo varies according to the cir- 

 cumstances of food and climate. The Hungarian and Ita- 

 lian are about eight feet and a half long, by five feet at the 

 shoulder ; the horns are directed sideways, compressed, with 

 a ridge in front, reclining towards the neck and the tips 

 turned up, placed at a great distance from each other, 

 with a convex forehead between them ; the mammae of the 

 male placed in a transverse line ; the hair scattered, coarse, 

 and black, and the tail long, terminated by a tuft ; the 

 hide is of a purplish black, in India almost naked, in 

 Egypt, sometimes totally without hair, and in the Indian 

 Archipelago the anterior half is occasionally covered with 



Vol. IV. 2 D 



