6554 



Notice of the various 



varieties, I shall not venture to decide, but I incline to regard them as 

 species. The length of the horns of B. macroceros are sometimes truly 

 enormous, or 64 feet each. 



" There is such a pair in the British Museum, and another pair I 

 saw in Tirhoot. The Arna ruts in autumn, and the females produce 

 one or two young in summer after a gestation of ten months. The 

 herds are usually numerous, and sometimes exceedingly so, though at 

 the season of love the most lusty males lead off and appropriate several 

 females, with which they form small herds for the time. This noble 

 species is, in the sal-forest and tarai, a truly stupendous animal, as tall 

 as the gaour, and longer considerably, and of such power and vigour 

 as by his charge frequently to prostrate a well-sized elephant ! The 

 wild animals are fully a third larger than the largest tame breed,* and 

 measure from snout to vent 10| feet, and 6 to 64- feet high at the 

 shoulder. The wild buffalo is remarkable for the uniform shortness of 

 its tail, which extends not lower than the hock ; for the tufts which 

 cover his forehead and knees; and, lastly, for the great size of his 

 horns and the uniform high condition of the animal, so unlike the 

 leanness and angularity of the domestic buffalo's figure, even at its 

 best." 



This difference in the development of the wild and tame buffalo is 

 equally observable where the two frequent the same pastures and 

 commonly interbreed ; and we believe the main reason of it to be, that 

 the tame calves are deprived of their due supply of milk.f The import- 

 ance of an ample supply of suitable nourishment in early life, as bearing 

 on the future development of any animal, cannot be over-estimated. 

 It occasionally happens, during great inundations, that many wild 

 buffalo-calves are noosed while swimming about and added to the 

 domestic herds. 



Still, it is remarkable that this swamp-frequenting animal thrives 

 particularly in hilly districts. The domestic are particularly fine 



* In like manner, the sub-fossil urus is fully one-third larger than the largest breeds 

 of domestic taurines of the same type. This remarkable analogy of the wild and tame 

 buffalos should be borne in mind. 



f Since the above was in type, a friend who has just returned from Maulmein has 

 confirmed us in this opinion. He remarks that he never had an idea of what a fine 

 buffalo was, till he saw those of Burma. They are there much larger than in Bengal, 

 with splendid horns, and altogether a vastly superior animal,— in fact, resembling the 

 wild buffalo. The Burmese never milk them ; having the same strange prejudice 

 to milk which the Chinese have, though otherwise both people are nearly omni- 

 vorous. 



