BUFFALOES 



79 



inclining in the reverse direction from the loins to the nape, although it is stated 

 that in a young bull from Uganda, received in the London Zoological Gardens 

 during the summer of 1912, the hair of the hind part of the back was reversed 

 in the fashion of the Asiatic species. The typical Cape buffalo (Bos caffer) is a 

 huo-e black beast, characterised by the enormous helmet-like mass formed by the 

 bases of the great spreading black horns of the old bulls, which are nearly in 

 contact in the middle line of the forehead. Buffaloes agreeing more or less closely 

 with this type extend some distance north of the Orange River, but in Uganda and 

 the Lake Albert district we find the horns becoming flatter and thinner, as in the 





~ A >" '■ 



CAPE BUFFALO. 



races respectively known as B. c. radcliffei and B. c. mathewsi. Still farther north 

 the Abyssinian buffalo (B. c. cequinoctialis) is tawny or blackish brown in colour, 

 and frequently greyish on the hind limbs. The horns of adult bulls are less 

 massive and more flattened than those of the Cape buffalo, and are separated on 

 the forehead by a broad strip of hairy skin, as in some of the above-mentioned 

 East African buffaloes. From Abyssinia and the south of Somaliland buffaloes 

 identical with or closely allied to B. c. cequinocticdis extend some distance up the 

 valley of the White Nile. 



On the north side of the Congo Valley is to be found a small red or yellow 

 buffalo (B. c. nanus), whose height at the shoulder is only about 42 inches. The 

 ears of this dwarf Congo buffalo are heavily fringed with long hair, and the horns 



