e up and despatched him, though too late to save
their comrade, whose body was hanging in the tree quite dead.

The length of a full-grown Buffalo is about eight feet from horns to
root of tail, and the height five feet and a half. The horns are massive
and heavy, measuring from six to nine feet, following the curve from tip
to tip. They are broad at the base, and very nearly meet on the centre
of the forehead. Hamilton Smith says, they are "in contact at the base;"
but this is not the case in the several specimens which I have examined,
namely, three in the College of Surgeons, four in the British Museum,
and two in the Zoological Gardens.

In the living specimen in the Zoological Gardens, from which the figure
at the head of this article was taken, there is a good deal of hair of a
dark brown colour on the neck and shoulders, and some small tufts on the
fore-legs, but the rest of the body is almost naked. The tail is short,
with a tuft at the end.

The individual here referred to is by no means a large specimen, being
only four feet ten inches high at the shoulders; probably he is young,
and not yet full-grown. He is so active, as to be able to clear a
four-feet fence, and he frequently leaps over the half-door (about three
feet high,) which separates his little enclosure from his dormitory. His
intelligence is much superior to that of ordinary cattle: the entrance
to his apartment is furnished with four doors, two on each door-post;
and when closed, they of course meet in the middle of the entrance. When
he is outside, (as the doors all open inwardly,) a mere push with his
horns sends them open. But when he is inside, it requires four distinct
operations to shut them, and these he performs with the greatest
adroitness, going from one to the other, until all are closed. He opens
them also from within with equal skill, by applying the tip of one of
his horns to each separately, and retiring a step or two to allow them
room to open.

The flesh of the Cape Buffalo is reckoned excellent eating, especially
that of the young calf, which is equal to the veal of the domestic calf.
The horns are made into various articles, having a fine close grain, and
taking a beautiful polish. But the hide is the most valuable part of
this animal, being so thick and tough, that shields, proof against a
musket-shot, are formed of it; and it affords the strongest and best
thongs for harness and whips. The skin of the living Buffalo is so