THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
with which the sleek and handsome cow is regarded. In the religious my- 
thology of that imaginative population it figures in gloomy and forbidding 
episodes. 
This animal is highly valued throughout the East wherever rice is cul- 
tivated, and the Philippine carabao is a small variety of it. Egypt re- 
ceived it very long ago, and will spread it southward, since it is adapted to 
the hot lowlands now being brought under cultivation in the Sudan, and 
likes coarse aquatic vegetation better than dry-land forage; hence it has 
long thriven and proved useful in the Niger Valley. It was introduced into 
Italy for labor in the northern marsh districts several hundred years ago, 
and serves well in Spain, Turkey, and elsewhere in the West. 
Africa has native buffaloes of much the same character in two 
species, neither of which has been found domesticable. Both 
eecieee are growing rare even in remote districts, chiefly 
Buffaloes. through the ravages of rinderpest. The South 
African buffalo is nearly equal in size and appearance to the 
Indian one, but its horns are somewhat shorter and their bases 
nearly meet in a broad, flattened “buckler”’ over the forehead. 
These buffaloes, too, frequent marshes and rivers, wading about 
and eating aquatic plants. Their sense of smell is remarkably 
keen, and they are further warned of the approach of a dis- 
turber by the buffalo birds or ox peckers, a kind of starling 
that remain near them with untiring vigilance. Similarly in 
the East, cattle are attended both by starlings and small 
herons, which perch on their backs and hunt for ticks and other 
parasites. The African buffalo, like his Indian brother, has 
the distinction of being regarded as perhaps the most danger- 
ous brute a sportsman can meet in that land of dangerous 
beasts, and the literature of African hunting makes good this 
reputation. Only rarely will even the lion attack one single- 
handed, and then seldom succeeds. 
The West African species is smaller, has shorter and less 
massive horns, and is ruddy brown in color. 
Strangest of the ox tribe is the yak of Tibet and the high 
Himalaya. In its wild state, on the lofty plateaus, it is a huge 
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