The preceding outline of the backs of four Buffaloes will show how inappropriate the character of a _straight back_ is, when applied to "Buffaloes _in general_." The lowest outline (5), inserted by way of contrast, represents the back of the Domestic Ox, to which the character of straight might very properly be applied. (1) Italian Buffalo. (2) Manilla Buffalo. (3) Pulo Condore Buffalo. (4) Cape Buffalo.
Generic characters should be such (and such _only_) as will apply to every species included in the genus.
The period of gestation of the Manilla Buffalo is between forty-eight and forty-nine weeks. In two actual cases of a female now living in the Zoological Gardens, the periods were, in the one case, 340 days, in the other, 341 days; being 70 days longer than the ordinary term of the domestic Cow.
[Illustration: Head of Manilla Buffalo--female.]
Not much is known of the Buffalo which is found in the island of Pulo Condore. It is related by those navigators who completed the voyage to the Pacific Ocean, begun by Captain Cook, that when at Pulo Condore, they procured eight Buffaloes, which were to be conducted to the ships by means of ropes put through their nostrils and round their horns; but when they were brought within sight of the sailors, they became so furious that some of them tore out the cartilage of their nostrils, and set themselves at liberty. All attempts to get them on board would have proved fruitless, had it not been for some children, whom the animals would suffer to approach them, and by whose puerile management their rage was quickly appeased; and when the animals were brought to the beach, it was by their assistance, in twisting ropes around their legs, that the men were enabled to throw them down, and by that means get them into the boats. And what appears to have been no less singular than this circumstance was, that they had not been a day on board before they became perfectly gentle.
Whether this be a distinct species, or merely a variety, we have not, at present, the least means of ascertaining.
The tail-piece below represents a short-horned Bull of the Domestic species, _Bos Taurus_.
This species of ox is only to be found in Africa, and is chiefly confined to the wooded districts lying north of the Cape of Good Hope. What Lavater endeavours to prove of the human being, namely, that the face is the index of the mind or disposition, may be applied, with at least equal truth, to the Cape Buffalo. His broad, projecting muzzle, lowering eyebrows, shaggy pendulous ears, surmounted by a pair of huge horns, give a look of bold determination to this animal, which forms a tolerably correct index of his character; his firm-set limbs and bulky body convey a no less adequate idea of his enormous strength.