THE BUFFALO. 405 



Buffaloes " haye only two enemies," writes the Hon. W. H. 

 Drummond ^— " man and lions ; but as the former follows them 

 through the livelong day, often wounding when he does not kill, 

 and the latter takes up the chase at nightfall, and unless he 

 catches one does not retire till daybreak, whilst both occasionally 

 change their times— the lion, pressed by hunger, following them 

 during the daytime, while the hunter spends the night in ambush 

 near their drinking-hole— it is not to be wondered at that in places 

 where, even in my own day, herds varying from ten to a hundred 

 were common, there are not now ten head in all to be found." 



It is very seldom, however, that a single Hon will attack a full- 

 grown buffalo. It frequently happens that even when a calf has 

 fallen his victim, the cow will rush to the rescue, and a toss from her 

 often kills him. Dr. Livingstone speaks of his finding one or two 

 lions killed this way, and says, " the amount of roaring heard at 

 night, on occasions when a buffalo is killed, seems to indicate that 

 there are always more than one lion engaged in the onslaught. 

 On the plain, south of Sebituare's ford, a herd of buffaloes kept a 

 number of lions from their young by the males turning their heads 

 to the enemy. The young and the cows were in the rear. One 

 toss from a bull would kill the strongest lion that ever breathed." 



The Cape buffalo is the most ferocious of all the Bovidse 

 family, and by many hunters is considered the most formidable 

 of all South African wild animals, for they maintain, probably with 

 some truth, that there are more lives lost through buffaloes 

 charging than are due to the fangs of lions or the onslaught of 

 elephants. 



Dr. Holub, to whose recent account of " Seven years' residence 

 in South Africa," reference has previously been made, observes : 

 " Nothing can exceed the cunning that a buffalo will exhibit when 

 it is wounded or infuriated. Having better powers of discrimina- 

 tion, it is more wary than a hippopotamus, and consequently is 

 not so dangerous to an unarmed man ; but once provoked it will 

 fight to the bitter end. It generally makes a little retreat, and 

 conceals itself behind a bush, where it waits for the hunter, and 

 when he comes up makes a dash at him. Attacks of this kind 

 3 " The Large Game and JSTatural History of South and South-East Africa," 1875. 



