398 



RECORDS OF BIG GAME 



liead of Indian Buffalo. Shot by the Maharaja of Kuch Behar. 



INDIAN BUFFALO or AENA (Bos bubalis). 



No one is the least likely to confuse this animal with the Cape 

 species. Both belong, indeed, to the same group of the genus Bos, 

 and have the rounded upper portion of the head and angulated horns. 

 In the Indian species, however, the head is much longer, the ears 

 are narrower and less heavily haired, and the horns of the male are 

 widely separated on the forehead, and totally different in form. Two 

 types of horns may be recognised, one very massive, and curving 

 regularly up from each side of the head in a subcircular manner ; the 

 other much slenderer, though quite as long often, directed for the 

 greater part of their length almost straight out from the head, and 

 always with a wider spread ; these latter horns being those of females. 

 Height at shoulder about 6 feet 2 inches ; girth behind shoulder, lo feet 

 8 inches. In a bull shot by the Maharaja of Kuch Behar the length 

 from the nose to the tip of the tail was 14 feet 2 inches, and to the 

 base of the tail 11 feet; the maximum girth being 10 feet 8 inches, 

 and the weight of the head when cut off, i 5 8 lbs. 



Distribution. — Typically India, where the range includes the plains of 

 the Bramaputra and Ganges from the eastern end of Assam to 

 Tirhut, and the Terai as far west as Rohilcund, the plains near the 

 coast in Midnapore and Orissa, and also the plains in the Eastern 



