396 



RECORDS OF BIG GAME 



Horns of old .Male Scnegambian Ijiiffalo, from the type specimen 

 in the British Museum. 



SMALLER AFRICAN BUFFALOES. 



Lake Tchad Buffalo {Bos caff'er bracJiyceros). 

 Senegambian Buffalo {Bos cajfcr planiccros). 

 Dwarf Congo Buffalo [Bos caffer nanus). 



Despite the enormous differences, alike in size, colour, and the form 

 of the horns, between the little red buffalo of the Congo and its gigantic 

 black cousin of the Cape, such a gradual and apparently complete 

 transition can be traced from the one type to the other, that both 

 seem local modifications of one very variable animal. In the dwarf 

 buffalo of the Congo the colour of the hair is red or yellow, the ears 

 are fringed with very long hair, and the horns are much flattened at 

 the base, with long smooth tips directed upwards. This type may be 

 traced, with some modifications, to the Gaboon and Gambia ; but in 

 the interior of Senegambia it apparently passes into the larger brown 

 buffalo, with more laterally expanded and recurved horns, known as 

 B. differ planiceros. And this latter is, in its turn, very close to the 

 Abyssinian buffalo {B. caffer ceqtiinoctialis) of East Central Africa, 

 which is nearly allied to the typical Cape form. Another type is 

 indicated by the Lake Tchad buffalo {J3. caffer brachyceros), first dis- 

 covered by Denham and Clapperton. In height the Congo dwarf 

 buffalo only reaches some 42 inches at the shoulder. 



