6560 



Quadrupeds, 



in their interior outline.* In our drawings, made carefully on the scale 

 of an inch to a foot, the total length of skull, from vertex to tips of 

 intermaxillaries, should be 13^ inches; greatest breadth posterior to 

 orbits, 6 inches ; length of horns, 9 inches ; width apart at base, 14- 

 inch ; at tips 4^ inches ; width apart at base, measuring from the out- 

 side, about 4|- inches. The dagger-like shape of the horns indicates 

 them to be extremely formidable weapons. We can hardly think that 

 this very small animal can be the " wild cow " of Celebes. It is the 

 Bos bubalus, var. B, of Pennant; and some other species, unknown 

 to modern science, he has certainly indicated by his var. A, which he 

 has very rudely figured, and describes as follows : — 



" Naked : a small sort, exhibited in London some years ago, under 

 the name of Bonassus ; of the size of a runt: hair on the body bristly, 

 and very thin, so that the skin appeared ; the rump and thighs quite 

 bare, the first marked on each side with two dusky stripes ; horns 

 compressed sideways, taper, sharp at the point. — East Indies."f 

 Can this have been one of the " wild cattle of Timor Laut," noticed 

 by Mr. Earl, but said to have " upright horns ? " Pennant's figure 

 w r ould seem to represent an animal nearly akin to the Anoa of Celebes, 

 with depressed horns curving a little inwards. He represents two 

 dark bars on the naked rump, and two others across the thigh ; the 

 neck and body anterior to the haunch being clad with longish hairs. 



(To be continued.) 



Buff-coloured Rabbits. — In a former number of the ' Zoologist ' I sent some 

 account of several varieties of white and variegated birds, pheasants, blackbirds, and 

 a thrush met with here, and also of sixteen or eighteen buff or straw-coloured rabbits, 

 which had lately appeared amongst the other common rabbits ; the former being of 

 different broods and sizes and in different covers distinct from each other, so that they 

 could not have come from the same parents or stock, but were unquestionably bred 



* Not a few of the humped taurine cattle have straight horns, more or less 

 resembling in direction those of the Anoa buffalo. Such are of tolerably frequent 

 occurrence among the large ordnance bullocks of this country. That the same type 

 prevails in Central Africa may be inferred from one or two of Dr. Barth's plates. 



f The humped cattle of Algawf, it is elsewhere stated, "are, as f generally 

 in Arabia, of a very small and poor race, and are never, but with the greatest 

 reluctance, killed for food." 



