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Show 1875.] SIR VICTOR BROOKE ON AFRICAN BUFFALOES. 455 The specific identity of this West-African Buffalo with that obtained by Captain Clapperton in Central Africa appears equally certain, as Dr. Gray* in his remarks on the living Buffalo in the Surrey Zoological Gardens, states that it resembled Captain Clapperton's specimen in being of " a nearly uniform pale chestnut-colour." W e are, I think, therefore justified in concluding that there is but one species of Buffalo in Western, Western Equatorial, and Central Africa, and that the oldest name for this species is that given by Turton. Now, as to the possible identity of the smaller species of Buffalo of Eastern Africa mentioned by Heuglin and others with Bubalus pumilus:- During the last three years a large number of specimens of the N.E.-African Buffalo have been brought to England by collectors and sportsmen, all of which I have had the opportunity of examining. I have also again seen the living animals in the Berlin Zoological Gardens, of which the male's head is figured in m y former paper (P. Z. S. 1873, plate 42). I am therefore at present in a much better position than I was upon that occasion to define clearly the characters of this eastern form and to estimate correctly the amount of difference which exists between it and the true Bubalus pumilus. As will be seen from the descriptions which follow, the external differences are very much greater than the examination of the skulls alone had led me to apprehend, and I have no longer any doubt of the practical expediency of regarding the two forms as specifically distinct. Notwithstanding, I am still unable to find any important distinctive cranial or cornual characters serving to separate the two forms which are not shown to be fugitive upon the comparison of a large series of specimens. At the time of writing m y former paper, I was under the impression that Bubalus caffer extended from Southern Africa into Abyssinia. I now find that this southern form is unknown in Abyssinia, its place being taken by its smaller representative, Bubalus caffer, var. aquinoctialis, of Blyth. I will now give the descriptions and dimensions of the three forms of African Buffaloes; for the full synonymy of Bubalus pumilus I would refer to m y former paper. BUBALUS PUMILUS. 1781. The Dwarf, Penn. Quadr. p. 30. no. 10, pl. 27. fig. 3. 1806. Bos pumilus, Turton, Transl. Syst. Nat. p. 121. 1837. Bubalus brachyceros, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. (n. ser.) p. 587. 1861. Bos brachyceros, D u Chaillu, Expl. Eq. Afr. p. 175 &c. 1863. Bubalus reclinis and B. planiceros, Blyth, P. Z. S. pp. 157, 158, figs. 3 & 4 . Female about three years of age, all the permanent incisors except the two external teeth being in place (Zoological Gardens, Antwerp, received from Senegal) :- * Ann. Nat. Hist. 1839 (1st ser.) p. 284, t. 13. |