THE BUFFALOES.[25]
The BUFFALOEShave the horns flattened and triangular in section, inclined outwards and backwards, turning up at the tips. The Common Buffalo is found in Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Indian region. The huge Indian variety, with most lengthy horns, is also known as the Arni. Its horns are elongated and narrow, sometimes reaching six feet and a half in length. It stands nearly or quite six feet at the shoulder, its proportions are bulky, and its general colour dusky-black. It lives in small herds numbering not more than twenty, and solitary bulls are often met with which attack sportsmen in a most vicious manner without provocation. The Cape Buffalo has shorter horns, expanded at their bases, so that they almost meet in the middle line of the forehead. It is found all over Central and South Africa, and is a formidable animal when wounded, as, quite regardless of the cloud of smoke which follows the shot aimed at it, it charges right through it, and so doesfrequent injury to the experienced hunter. Its general colour is blue-black, but in some cases it has a reddish tinge. The Hon. W. H. Drummond gives the following account of a fight between two bulls of which he was an eye-witness. After having had his attention attracted by a loud clattering noise, he remarks that, “on looking through the edge of the last thicket which had concealed them, I saw two Buffalo bulls standing facing each other with lowered heads, and, as I sat down to watch, they rushed together with all their force, producing the loud crash I had before heard. Once the horns were interlocked they kept them so, their straining quarters telling that each was doing his best to force the other backwards. Several long white marks on their necks showed where they had received scratches, and blood dripping over the withers of the one next me proved that he had received a more severe wound. It was a magnificent sight to see the enormous animals, every muscle at its fullest tension, striving for the mastery. Soon one, a very large and old bull, began to yield a little, going backwards step by step; but at last, as if determined to conquer or die, it dropped on to its knees. The other, disengaging its horns for a second, so as to give an impetus, again rushed at him, but, whether purposely or not I could not tell, it did not strike him on the forehead, but on the neck, under the hump, and I could see that with a twist of his horns he inflicted a severe wound. However, instead of following up his seeming advantage, he at once recoiled, and stood half facing his antagonist, who, getting on his legs again, remained in the same position for several minutes, and then with a low grunt of rage, rushed at him. This time he was not met, and his broad forehead struck full on his rival’s shoulder, almost knocking it over. The old bull then went a few yards off and stood watching the other for fully a quarter of an hour, when he walked slowly away in the opposite direction.”
The Cape Buffalo, which is found all over Africa south of the equator, is replaced in the north-eastern portion of the continent by a smaller variety, of a browner colour, and with much shorter horns, which are not closely approximated at their bases, at the same time that they spread out almost horizontally instead of curving downwards and backwards.
ANOA.
ANOA.
In western and the western-equatorial parts of Africa there is again another still smaller varietyin which the hair is yellowish-red instead of nearly black or brown, the short horns being, as well, directed considerably upwards instead of directly outwards.
In the Island of Celebes the smallest species of Buffalo is found, which differs but little in appearance from the young of the Cape species. It is known as the ANOA; is black, with short, wavy hair, and has short, parallel prismatic horns directed upwards from the forehead.
THE PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.[26]
This Antelope of North America, one of the few forms of the Hollow-horned Ruminants which inhabit the New World, is different from all the other members of the group in two respects at least, namely, that its horns are branched, as implied in the name, and that they are annually shed.
The accompanying figure is a side view of the skull of the animal, whose size is nearly that of a Fallow Deer, although its build is not so heavy. It is there seen that each horn-core forms a blade-shaped projection six inches long, with the pointed end behind, situated above the eyes perpendicular to the line of the face, rounded posteriorly and sharpened in front. Each horn itself is a foot or so in its greatest length, is pointed and gently curved backwards, at the same time that from the front of it, very slightly above the middle of its height, a short branch arises which is directed forwards, the whole there dividing into two. Each horn is flattened from side to side, is not annulated, and in its structure scarcely differs from that of a Sheep or Goat.
For some years before it was certainly known to be the case, it had been rumoured by the hunters of Fort Union that the Pronghorn Antelope shed its horns each year; and in the year 1858 Dr. C. A. Canfield, of Monterey, California, in writing to Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, informed him that in specimens in his possession “their horns drop off annually.” This letter remained unprinted until in England Mr. A. D. Bartlett, Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park, London, in 1865 drew attention to the same fact, which was observed by him in a male animal living in the Gardens at the time.
SKULL OF THE PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.
SKULL OF THE PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.
The horns—not antlers, be it noticed—are, it is now certain, detached each year from their supporting cores, and subsequently dropped, to be replaced by others which at the time of shedding have already advanced some way in growth, although at first they are very pale and soft. In this respect the Pronghorn is not resembled by any other Antelope, and differs entirely from the Deer.
Of the species Dr. Canfield, in the letter above referred to, gives several interesting details as to its habits, from which we may infer that they are not so cunning or so fleet as their allies in Africa and India:—“From the 1st of September to the 1st of March they run in bands, the bucks, does, and kids all together,” shortly after which time the young are born, upon which the bucks separate and wander about alone until the following season.“A band of Pronghorn Antelopes, when frightened, never run directly away from you, but cross over in front of you, running across your path from one side to the other repeatedly, and keeping about a hundred yards ahead. On this account it is sometimes easy, on a smart Horse, to run into a drove of them and catch one of them with a noose. When one is alone, and is watched by a person or animal and becomes frightened, it makes a sort of shrill blowing noise like a whistle, and then commences bounding off. On the neck it has a heavy, thick, chestnut-coloured mane, five or six inches long, and on the rump a white patch of coarse hair; and when the animal is frightened it always erects the mane and the hair and this white spot, thus giving it a very singular and characteristic appearance as it runs bounding away from you. The Antelope has a very peculiar odour, strong and, to some people, offensive.... On the whole, I consider the meat of the Pronghorn to be very excellent.”
PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.⇒LARGER IMAGE
PRONGHORN ANTELOPE.
⇒LARGER IMAGE
There is a peculiarity in the feet of the Pronghorn in which it resembles the Giraffe, a few Antelopes, and the different members of the Camel tribe, namely, that the false hoofs, as well as their supporting bones, are entirely absent, from which it may be inferred, as is the case, that the number of digits in each foot is only two.
In the females of the species the horns are present, but they are much reduced in size, and almost hidden in the hairy covering of the head. The end of the nose—in other words, the muffle—is hairy, and not, therefore, damp at all times in any part, as is that of the Ox and most ruminants. The tail is very short; the fur is very short and close set, being stiff and wavy. Its colour is a pale fawn above and on the limbs, whilst the breast as well as the abdomen are a yellowish-white, at the same time that the tail and round about it are pure white, as is the inside of the ear.
Although the Pronghorn is here described after all the more ordinary hollow-horned Ruminantia, it is far from impossible that it is much more intimately related to some one of the above-mentioned families than to the others. It must either have originated direct from the earliest type of Bovine Ruminant, and from that time continued isolated until the present day, or it may have been a straggler from some already differentiated group, like the Gazelles, for instance, that, arriving in a land so unlike the haunts of its progenitors, took on itself from altered circumstances peculiar modifications in its horn-growth and foot-form which have resulted in its present characteristics.