6552 Notice of the various 



of its horns would intimate ; but the long-horned Indian buffaloes attack 

 a man or tiger by goring, which, notwithstanding the backward curva- 

 ture of their horns, they effect by bringing the head close under the 

 breast (much in the manner of an oryx), and charging with the point 

 of one horn directed forwards and almost touching the ground ; the 

 action is, however, the same in both cases. " Upon an attack or alarm," 

 writes Marsden, " these animals flee to a short distance, and then 

 suddenly face about and draw up in battle array, with surprising quick- 

 ness and regularity ; their horns being laid back, and their muzzles 

 projecting. Upon the nearer approach of the danger that threatens 

 them, they make a second flight, and again halt and form ; and this 

 excellent mode of retreat they continue till they have gained a neigh- 

 bouring wood." They manifest the same antipathy to glaring colours, 

 and particularly red, as the rest of the group, and likewise as the gnus 

 (Catoblepas), of which sundry anecdotes have been recorded ; but, as 

 in other cattle, habituation to the sight of such colours renders them 

 indifferent to them, as Sonnini remarked of the domestic buffaloes of 

 Egypt, where the inhabitants, besides their red turban, wear also (in 

 general) a shawl of the same colour enveloping the neck and chest. 

 The flesh of buffaloes is extremely coarse and cellular, like that of the 

 elephant, rarely fat, and of rank unpleasant flavour ; but the milk of 

 the female, though not so sweet as that of the cow, is good, and given 

 in great quantity :* the hide, also, is very substantial, and, when well 

 tanned, proves equal to every purpose to which stout leather is applied. 

 Lichtenstein remarks, of the Cape species, that its ribs are extraor- 

 dinarily broad, leaving scarcely any intervals between them ; which is 

 perhaps a character of the buffaloes generally, though something very 

 like it may be seen in ordinary " ribs of beef." The young (both of 

 the African and Asiatic species) are born of a whitish colour, which is 

 succeeded by yellowish buff hair, when the animal is a third grown. 

 Those of Asia and Africa form two natural sub-divisions ; the horns 

 of the Asiatic being more widely separated at base, though the Bubalus 

 brachyceros of middle Africa is intermediate in this respect. The 

 African have also rounder ears, which in B. brachyceros are extraor- 

 dinarily large; the Asiatic buffaloes having a more lanceolate form of 

 ear, — like the humped taurine cattle, as opposed to the European type 



* Mr. Paget, in his work on Hungary and Transylvania (vol ii. p. 227), states that 

 it is richer than that of the cow ; but we suspect the quality varies much in the different 

 races. Buffalo's milk is, indeed, particularly esteemed in the Dukhun and north-west 

 of India. 



