The Cape Buffalo 1 1 1 



heard a buffalo bellowing, when attacked by lions, just like an ox. Buffaloes 

 are strong swimmers and take to the water readily, either to escape danger 

 or in search of pasture. They swim very low in the water, with only the 

 eyes, nostrils, part of the horns, and a portion of the hind-quarters above 

 the surface. The horns of buffalo bulls attain their full length before the 

 animals are fully adult, and while the lower portions of the horn-cores in 

 the centre of the forehead are still covered with skin, as in the cows. The 

 shell of each horn then begins gradually to displace the skin on the fore- 

 head, until at last two great rounded plates of horn are formed, which 

 overshadow the eyes and often touch one another in the centre. When, 

 however, they actually touch in a living buffalo, they soon shrink apart 

 after death, and it will then be seen that there is a narrow strip of skin, 

 perhaps a quarter of an inch in width between their bases, which connects 

 the skin between the eyes with that behind the horns. A good pair of 

 buffalo horns will measure 3 feet 6 inches in a straight line from bend to 

 bend (outside measurement), and 15 or 16 inches in depth over the forehead. 

 They sometimes attain a spread of 4 feet, but as a rule very wide horns are 

 not very deep in the cushion. 



The widest pair I have in my collection (though I have, I am sure, shot 

 finer specimens, that I did not measure, as I could not carry them) has a 

 spread of 3 feet 8 inches, and a depth of 14 inches, whilst another pair 

 measures i6| inches over the cushion, with a spread of 3 feet 4^ inches. 

 Although buffaloes do not usually stand more than 4 feet 10 inches at the 

 shoulder, they must weigh very heavy, as, though they are very short in 

 the legs, they are enormously bulky. The bulls stand but little higher at 

 the shoulder than the cows, but they are much more heavily built, with 

 immense necks, and therefore look much larger. 



