The Buffalo. 315 



THE BUFFALO. 



The American Bison (Bos-americanus), is generally 

 known as the Buffalo; but the Buffalo is an entirely dif- 

 ferent animal, found in its wild state only in India and 

 Africa. There are four distinct species of this animal, 

 the fiercest and largest, being the Cape, or Black African, 

 Buffalo (Bos-caffer), whose habitat is generally in the 

 reedy swamps from the Cape to the equator ; but a modi- 

 fied variety of this species is found from the equator 

 north to Abyssinia. The hair covering of the Cape Buf- 

 falos is always thin, and in old age the skin is almost bare. 

 They are heavily built, and a full-grown male will stand 

 four feet six inches at the shoulder. They have flattened, 

 curved, black horns, that meet at the base forming a great 

 bony plate on the front of the head ; the horns sometimes 

 measure three feet each in length, but they are so curved 

 along the line of the head that the span from bend to bend 

 is about three feet and six inches; the flapping ears are of 

 enormous size, and are thickly fringed with hair on the 

 lower border. 



Cape Buffalos are usually seen in herds of from fifty 

 to three hundred individuals. They are swift in their 

 movements, and according to Mr. Selous: "When charg- 

 ing they invariably hold their noses straight out, laying 

 their horns straight back over their shoulders, and low- 

 ering their heads only as they are about to strike. ' ' They 

 live as near the water as possible in summer, and at sun- 

 down they refresh themselves with a bath before feeding. 

 They breed during the African summer, and calves are 

 born in January, February or March. The Cape Buffalo 

 sometimes lives to be thirty years old. According to "W. 

 H. Drummond, there is a variety of Cape Buffalo occasion- 

 ally met with in the forest with blacker hair and more 

 spreading horns than the type species. 



The Short Horned, or Red Buffalo (Bos-pumilis), 

 whose habitat is in West Africa, is smaller than the fore- 

 going, and has a heavier, lighter colored coat of hair, in 

 some eases light yellow on top and reddish brown below. 



