6558 



Notice of the various 



The Italian buffalo is a very different-looking beast from that of 

 India, at least from the ordinary tame buffalo of Bengal. His carriage 

 is different — less emphatically bubaline ; he is better clad, and has a 

 remarkably convex or bombed forehead, and short horns, that curve 

 much down, then out and up, with the usual slant backward, which, 

 however, is but slight. The tail, too, with its tuft, descends quite to 

 the fetlocks. He is commonly more or less splashed with white ; but 

 this we have observed of many Indian buffaloes, especially in Oude.* 

 If our information can be relied upon, the same race is found in Sindh. 

 Hornless individuals occur sometimes ; and skulls of this race, both 

 horned and hornless, are figured in the 1 Ossemens Fossiles' of Olivier. 

 The buffalo is stated to have been introduced into Lombardy from 

 India by King Agilulf, who reigned from 591 to 616,* and has now gone 

 wild, as usual, in the Pontine marshes. It was first described as the 

 " Arachosian ox" by Aristotle ; the site of the ancient city of Ara- 

 chosia being near the modern Kandahar, as determined by Rawlinson 

 in 1841. 



The Anoa buffalo — [Bubalus depressicornis ; Aiioa depressicornis, 

 C. H. Smith). This is a very curious little animal, from the mountains 

 of Celebes, of which there is now a stuffed specimen in the British 

 Museum ; but we are unaware that aught has been added to its history 

 since the time of Pennant 1 We have seen several frontlets, and one 

 entire skull (minus the lower jaw), of which we possess drawings. 

 Pennant remarks, in his c History of Quadrupeds,' that the Anoa is a 



calf, however, is densely clad with slaty white hair, having constantly a medial 

 white mark on the fore neck and chest, crossed by another on the fore part of the 

 neck. This is the more valuable of the two to the herdsmen, on account of its giving 

 more milk. The other stands lower on the legs, is altogether a thicker-made animal, 

 and much more hairy ; the horns are much thicker, and very rugous or deeply 

 furrowed in the males ; the calf has no white cross on the breast, and is of a more 

 rufous colour than that of the other. This race is called the Bhangar. Both occur 

 in the same herd, but the former are less numerous ; and they breed freely together, 

 the offspring of the first, second and third crosses being readily distinguished by the 

 herdsmen ; nevertheless, characteristic specimens of both are generally to be found in 

 every herd." We should be glad if any reader could verify aud further carry out 

 these observations. 



* Black, white and pied, or rather black splashed with white. We have seen no 

 intermediate shades of coloring, except in the calf. 



f " Tuncprimum caballi sylvatici et Bubali in Italia delatis, Italia? populis mira- 

 culo fucrunt." — Warnefridi, ' De gestis Longobardorum,' Lib., vol. iv. c. 2 ; Misson's 

 4 Voyage,' vol. iv. p. 395, as quoted by Pennant. 



