MAMMALS OF LIBERIA 615 
where it comes forth by night to feed in the rice and cassava plantations. Much 
harm is sometimes inflicted in this way. Biittikofer mentions a cassava planta- 
tion at Buluma that was entirely ruined by buffaloes. His hunter secured a cow 
at Robertport and he brought back an old bull from the Du River. Johnston 
says of these that they are of a reddish-yellow color, but dark-looking or blackish 
individuals also occur which may be older animals. The exact status of this 
buffalo is still uncertain. Lydekker, in his Catalogue of the Ungulata in the 
British Museum, concludes that all its named races are forms of S. caffer, the 
longer-horned Cape Buffalo, but in some parts of Central Africa both species are 
found in the same general region in separate herds, and it seems quite as likely 
that the smaller animal is a distinct species. We saw nothing of them, though 
occasional tracks were seen, and once at Lenga Town on the Farmington River, 
a native came running in with the report that three had appeared near the village. 
The Chief seized his old musket and set forth in pursuit but came back later 
empty-handed. Our native hunter, Taylor, says that both black and red ones 
may be seen together in the same herd; they travel in herds of four or five with 
often two or three bulls to a herd, though sometimes large solitary bulls may be 
found. They live in heavy jungles as well as in second-growth forest with tangles 
of bushes and vines. They feed at night, lying down in the morning from eight 
till noon, and sometimes resuming their feeding in the afternoon. They are fond of 
a sword grass with a wide blade. The young are protected by the mother until 
they are about a year old. The natives sometimes capture the buffalo in pitfalls 
or with spear traps. In usual hunting it apparently behaves much as does its 
larger relative, starting off for ten or fifteen yards when alarmed, then coming to 
a stand to make sure of the cause of alarm, and if danger is detected, making off 
once more. If wounded, they will circle back on the track, waiting to charge 
suddenly upon the hunter as he passes. It was the firm belief of our hunter that 
they usually circle to the left. 
HYRACOIDEA 
PROCAVIIDAE Hyraxes 
Dendrohyrax dorsalis (Fraser). Tree Hyrax 
Hyrazx dorsalis Fraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1852, p. 99, pl. 33: Fernando Po. 
Hyrax stampflii Jentink, Notes Leyden Mus., vol. 8, p. 209, 1886: near Schieffelinsville, Liberia. 
Size of a small rabbit, but short-limbed, round-eared and tailless; color dark mixed gray and 
black above, silvery below, with a contrasting whitish blaze in the middle of the back, marking the 
location of a gland. Liberia to Cameroons. 
It is generally agreed that Jentink’s supposed new species, P. stampflii, is 
merely an immature or variant of the tree-hyrax already described by Fraser 
from Fernando Po. In case the continental form should eventually prove differ- 
ent from the typical race of that island, Temminck’s name silvestris (type lo- 
eality, Ashanti) will probably be found applicable. 
