Part 25

Bubalus, =Og.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139 B. BUSELAPHUS.

Size large and general form clumsy, with the withers considerably higher than the rump; head long and narrow; muzzle moist, naked, and rather broad; nostrils close together, lined with stiff hairs; neck not maned; suborbital glands small, tufted in some species, but not in others; hoofs small; tail reaching below the hocks, moderately haired, generally with a compressed crest along the dorsal surface of its terminal half; mammæ two.

Colour uniform brown or rufous, with or without black patches on the head, shoulders, hips, and feet.

Skull elongated; the frontal bones produced upwards and backwards into a long bony support for the horns, the occiput being entirely hidden in the upper view of the skull; parietals small, compressed behind the frontal horn-pedicle, facing nearly horizontally backwards. Small interorbital perforations present; lachrymal pits present but shallow. Molars very tall and narrow, and without supplementary lobes in the upper jaw.

Horns present in both sexes, those of the female as long, but not so thick, as those of the male, placed close together at their bases; doubly curved, first rising outwards or backwards, then curved forwards and upwards, and then bent abruptly backwards and upwards at their tips.

Range of the Genus. Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

This genus, containing the Hartebeests, is a very natural and well-defined one, and is curiously shown to be so by the fact that, so far as is as yet known, the ranges of the different species nowhere overlap each other, whilst almost every part of the range of the genus possesses its single representative species.

The members of the genus fall into four rather definite groups, as follows:--

A. Frontal horn-pedicle short; horns forming a V when viewed in front 1, 2. B. buselaphus, B. major.

B. Horn-pedicle moderate; horns forming an inverted bracket. 3, 4, 5. B. tora, B. swaynei, B. cokei.

C. Horn-pedicle extremely elongated; horns forming a V when viewed in front 6, 7. B. caama, B. jacksoni.

D. Horn-pedicle very short and broad; horns much curved inwards towards each other before the final backward turn. 8. B. lichtensteini.

Smit lith. Hanhart imp.

The Bubal.

BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS.

Published by R. H. Porter.]

1. THE BUBAL.

BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS (PALL.).

Buselaphus, =Gesner=, Hist. Anim., Quadr. p. 121 (1520).

Le Bubale, =Buff.= Hist. Nat. xii. p. 294, pls. xxxvii. (skeleton) and xxxviii. fig. 1 (skull and horns) (1764).

Antilope buselaphus, =Pall.= Misc. Zool. p. 7 (1766).

Antilope bubalis, =Pall.= Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 12 (1767), xii. p. 16 (1777); =Müll.= Naturs. Suppl. p. 54 (1776); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A. i. p. 291 (1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 544 (1777); =id.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 122 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool. i. p. 83 (1780); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxvii. B (animal) (1787); =Gm.= S. N. i. p. 188 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 314 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beytr. p. 633 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 95 (1799), ii. p. 645 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 331 (1801); =Virey=, N. Dict. d’H. N. iii. p. 525 (1803); =Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 114 (1806); =Ill.= Prodr. Syst. Mamm. p. 106 (1811); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 163 (1814); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 417 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241 (1816); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 195 (1816); =Goldf.= in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1171 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 390 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 466 (1822); =F. Cuv.= H. N. Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. li. (animal) (1825); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 381 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 473 (1829); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 296 (1859); =Nachtigal=, Sahara and Soudan, i. p. 572, ii. p. 678 (1879).

Capra dorcas, =Müll.= Natursyst. i. p. 416 (1773) (nec Linn.).

Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) bubalis, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Damalis bubalis, =H. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 347, v. p. 362 (1827).

Acronotus bubalis, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 221 (1833); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847).

Bubalus mauritanicus, =Og.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139.

Bubalis mauretanica, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 208 (1846); =id.= Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 195 (1893).