inspection only of such specimens as I had seen in the menagerie at
Barracpour. Since that time, I have pursued them myself near the
mountains of Sylhet; and I have likewise learned from various sources
that they are as numerous and as generally diffused as the common
Buffalo; but they appear to be wilder than the Buffalo, and not so
bold, never approaching where man has established his dominion.
Nevertheless, when caught, they are easily subdued, and become quite
domesticated in a few months. The milk of this species is said to be
more abundant and nourishing than that of any other."

From all that is at present known respecting this animal, it is regarded
by M. F. Cuvier as a new species added to the genus _Bos_; and, from the
circumstance of its having been first seen in a wild state near the
mountains of Sylhet, he has given it the specific name of _Sylhetanus_.

The animal represented in the following vignette is the Syrian Ox, which
is considered as a variety of _Bos Taurus_.

[Illustration]

THE BUFFALO.

The animal generally known under the name of the _Common_ Buffalo is
evidently a different species from the _Cape_ Buffalo. Much confusion,
however, prevails in the accounts, both of travellers and naturalists,
on the subject of these two animals. Descriptions of the one are mingled
with descriptions of the other, and anecdotes are related of the one
which, there is good reason for believing, ought to be referred to the
other. It is highly probable that future and more accurate observations
will show that more than one species has been confounded under the
general epithets of "the common Buffalo," "the domestic Buffalo," "the
tame Buffalo," or, more indeterminate still, "_the_ Buffalo."

The accounts furnished by travellers of the various animals in Asia and
Africa, described by them as Buffaloes, are altogether vague and
unsatisfactory, and frequently erroneous; not from any desire on the
part of the authors to deceive, but merely because their observations
have been made in the most careless and indifferent manner; and, in many
instances, their information is obtained from the verbal communications
of ignorant natives.

In those descriptions which are confined to the Buffalo, as it at
present exists in Italy and the south of Europe, tolerable reliance may
be placed, as their character and habits are there well known, being of
every day observation; yet, even in this case, little or nothing is