less distinctly triangular in section at the base ; marked by irregular
transverse rugosities for about two-thirds of their length, but becoming
more or less smooth and polished towards the tip ; situated low down on
the forehead o f the skull, considerably below the plane of the occiput, and
frequently receding from the forehead, which is more or less distinctly
convex in the larger living forms, but flat, or nearly so, in the smaller ones,
as well as in many of the extinct species ; their upper bordejsjgenerally
concave, and the tips more or less inclined inwards. The premaxills of
the skull reach upwards to join the nasal bones ; and there are thirteen
pairs of ribs. Size large to small.
In the skeleton the neural spines of the dorsal .vertebra;, although
narrower, have much the same form and relations as in the typical group,
but that of the seventh cervical is rather taller.
The buffaloes are the most aberrant of the wild cattle, none of them,ft
so far as known, breeding either with domestic cattle of with the members
of the bison group. The African buffalo (with its local races) diflu s .
remarkably from the Indian representative o f the group, that they might
almost be assigned to distinct sub-genera. But the anoa, which i§|yery-
generally referred to a genus, or sub-genus, by itself, is so intimately connected
with the Indian buffalo through the Philippine species, that there
seems no justification for its' sub-generic separation.
Distribution.—At the present day restricted in the wild state to the
Ethiopian and Oriental regions, but occurring in the Plistocene deposits -
of Europe and Algeria. i.
i . T he A fr ic a n B u f fa lo—Bos c a f f e r
Mos caffer, Sparrman, K. Svenska Vet. Ak. /hindl. vol. xl. p. 79 (1779) ;C’
Sundevall, ibid, for 1844, p. 153 (18 46 ); Hue.t, Bull. Soc. Acclim. Paris,
vol. xxxviii. p. 338; (1891) ; Flower and Lydekker, Study o f Mammals,
p. 3 € ® f i l 9 l | ; W. L . Sclater, Cat. Mamm. Ind. Mus. pt. ii. p. 130 (1891) ;
Nicolls and Eglington, Sportsman in South Africa, p. 72 (1892) ; Ward,
Records o f Big Game, p. 261 (1896).
Bmk{Bubalusf caffer, H. Smith, in Griffith’s Animal Kingdom, vol. iv.
p. 384, v. p, 371 ’(1827).
Bubalus oaffer, Jardine, Naturalists Library— Mamm. vol. iv. p. 237
(1836s!! Gray, L ift Mamm. Brit. Mus. p. 153 (1843) ;• Cat. TJngulata Brit.
il/« flp . 28 . ( 18 3 :2 ® . Cat. Ruminants Brit. Must- p. 12. (1872), Brooke,
Prdm B ill, Soc. 1873, p. 480, 1875, p. 4 5 7 ; Flower and Garson, Cat.
Fig. 17.—Head of Cape Buffalo. (Rowland Ward, Records o f Big Game.)
Osteal. Mus. Coll. Surg, pt. ii. p. 2 3 1884) ; Pechuel- Loesche, Zool.
Jahrb. Syst. v o l.E . p. 797 (n888|g Bocttge, Journ.'-fg-,. Lisbon, ser»#, vol. ii.
p. 24 (1890!); Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. scr. 7, vol. iv. p. 86 (1897).
Buffelus caffer, Matschie, Sdugetk. deutsch, Ost-Afrika, p. 107 (1895).
Characters.—Height varying from, about 4 feet g o inches to 3 feet 6
inches at the withers®) Head relatively short, with the muzzle very broad,
and the nasal bones of the skull short and wide; typically the profile of the
jjfjrehead deeply concave below the horn®,, and the forehead itself very
convex. Horns very variable, but always black, more or less markedly
expanded and flattened at the base,i;|o 3ts to obliterate the distinctly