OXEN. 
205 
distinctly triangular section. They taper gradually from root to tip, and generally 
curve regularly upwards, outwards, and a little backwards from the line of the face 
in nearly a single plane; the tips bending inwards and slightly forwards. This is 
the type represented in our illustration; but in a variety, which is mainly or 
entirely from Assam, the horns are directed straight outwards for the greater part 
of their length, and then suddenly curve upwards. In the cow the horns are 
considerably longer and thinner, with a much less marked angulation in front, than 
in the bulls; and it is in this sex, so far as our experience goes, that the horns with 
the straightest direction outwards are met with. The body becomes almost bare 
in old animals, and the general colour is ashy-black, although the legs may be 
whitish, or even, in domestic races, quite white below the knees and hocks. There 
is, however, a dun-coloured variety of this species, described by Mr. Blanford from 
upper Assam, in which the forehead is more convex than ordinary, and the nasal 
bones of the skull are much shorter. 
According to General Kinloch, it is doubtful if the bull of this species ever 
exceeds 5 feet 4 inches (16 hands) at the withers; and in one specimen, of which 
he gives the dimensions, the height was 5 feet, the length from the nose to the root 
of the tail 9 feet 7 inches, that of the tail 3 feet 11 inches, and the girth 8 feet 
3 inches. In the same specimen the length of the horns, measured from tip to tip 
along the greater curve, was 8 feet 3 inches. A skull in the British Museum has 
horns measuring 12 feet 2 inches from tip to tip along the curve; while a detached 
horn in the same collection has a length of 6 feet 6^ inches, which indicates a 
span of about 14 feet from tip to tip in the pair. 
In a truly wild state the Indian buffalo is only known definitely 
in the country from which it takes its name, the herds which are 
found in a wild state in Burma and the Malay Peninsula and adjacent islands, 
being not improbably descended from animals escaped from captivity. Our 
illustration is taken from an individual of one of these feral races in Java, where 
they are known by the name of karbu. 
In India wild buffaloes are found on the plains of the Bramaputra and Ganges, 
from the eastern end of Assam to Tirhut; they also occur in the “ terai ” land at 
the foot of the Himalaya, as far as Bohilcund, as well as on the plains near the 
coast in Midnapur and Orissa, and in the eastern portions of the Central 
Provinces, as well as in the north of Ceylon. Domesticated buffaloes are found 
not only over the whole of India and Burma, and the greater part of the Malayan 
region, but have likewise been introduced into Asia Minor, Egypt, and Italy. 
The haunts of the wild Indian buffalo are the tall grass-jungles 
found in many parts of the plains of India, and generally in the 
neighbourhood of swamps; but it may be also found more rarely in the open plains 
of short grass, or among low jungle, and occasionally even in forest. Those who 
have never had the opportunity of seeing an Indian grass-jungle can have but 
little conception of its height and density, but some idea may be formed of it from 
the following statement of General Kinloch, who writes that in such cover “ fre¬ 
quently, although a herd of buffaloes may be roused within a score of yards, the 
waving of the grass, and perhaps the glint of a polished horn-tip, is the only 
ocular evidence of the presence of the animals; the probably nearly noiseless rush 
Distribution. 
Habits. 
