ioo Great and Small Game of Africa 



a creature as a mountain zebra. And so the animals continue year by year 

 to disappear. It is not, I fear, difficult to predict that within the next fifty 

 years this zebra will have joined the ranks of extinct creatures. 



H. A. Bryden. 



THE BUFFALO 



Sub-Order Artiodactyla 



Family Bovid^. Genus Bos. 



The Even -toed section of the Hoofed Mammals contains a large 

 assemblage of animals agreeing with one another in the essential and 

 easily recognised feature that the toes corresponding to the third and 

 fourth fingers and toes of man are symmetrical to a line drawn between 

 them, and are larger than those on their outer sides, when such are present. 

 The highest development of this type is displayed by the "cloven hoof" 

 of the ruminants and pigs, but the less advanced feet of the hippopotamus 

 conform to the same general plan. In some cases, as in the giraffe, only 

 the two middle hoofs remain, although more commonly, as in the oxen, 

 the small lateral pair are also retained. Many other peculiarities are 

 associated with this characteristic type of foot-structure, but it will suffice 

 to mention in this place that when appendages are present on the head, 

 these take the form of a pair situated on the forehead, although in the 

 giraffe there may be an additional one of a different type in advance of 

 them. 



The Bovida, or hollow-horned ruminants, agree with the giraffes and 

 deer in the absence of upper front teeth, and in the crescent-like form 

 assumed by the grinding surfaces of their cheek-teeth. But they are 

 specially characterised by their horns, which take the form of hollow, 

 unbranched, cylindrical sheaths, covering bony processes of corresponding 



