Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/152 (page 20)
    [Cases caffer (1037), the horns do not attain an excessive length, bufr in 41 & 44.] bulls are so expanded and thickened at the base as to form a helmet-like mass protecting the whole forehead. In Eastern Africa the Buffaloes (B. caffer aquinodlalis. 1038) have smaller horns, which do not meet in the middle line; and other local races have been named. From the former, which is brown instead of black, there seems to be a transition towards the red Dwarf Buffalo (.B. nanus, 1039) of West Africa. In South Africa Buffaloes frequent reedy swamps, where they associate m herds of from fifty to a hundred or more individuals. Old bulls may be met with either alone or in small parties of from two or three to eight or ten. The typical Cape Buffalo, in addition to numerous skulls and horns, is represented by a male and feu,ale shot by Mr. F. C. Selous; while a male and female of the red Dwarf Buffalo are also shown, the former presented by Mr. C. Beddington in 1900. In a wild state the typical form of the Indian siatic U asOeS. ]3uffa}0 ^os [,Hubalus] bubalis, 1043) , seems [Pavilion to be restricted to India and Ceylon, although some of the BufFa- at end of loes found in the Malay Peninsula and Islands probably represent local races. The species has been introduced into Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy, and elsewhere. The large size and wide separation of the horns, as well as the less thickly fringed ears, and the more elongated and narrow head, form marked points of distinction between the Asiatic and the Atrican species. Moreover, all Asiatic Buffaloes are distinguished from the African species by having the hair on the fore part of t:.e back directed forward. The haunts of the Indian Buffalo are the grass-jungles near swamps, in which the grass exceeds twenty leet in height. Here the Buffaloes—like the Indian Bliinoceros—form covered path- ways, in which they are completely concealed. The herds frequently include fifty or more individuals. These animals are fond of passing the day in marshes : they are by no means shy, and do much harm to the crops. There are'at least two races of the Indian wild Buffalo; one, the ordinary torm with much curved horns, and the other, B. bubalis macrocerus, with the horns extending almost straight outwards for the greater part of their length, and very long. Of this Assam race, now apparently extinct, trie skulls and horns of a bull and cow are exhibited on the top of the Wild Ass Mammal Gallery. Case 44.]