410 AFRICAN RESEARCHES. 



The subject of these observations is evidently an animal al- 

 together new to science, but which Sir James mistakes for 

 the black rhinoceros. 



u The black rhinoceros, whose domains we seemed now to have invaded, 

 resembles in general appearance an immense hog ; twelve feet and a half 

 long, six feet and a half high, girth eight feet and a half, and of the weight 

 of half a dozen bullocks ; its body is smooth, and there is no hair seen, ex- 

 cept at the tips of the ears, and the extremity of the tail. The horns of con- 

 creted hair, the foremost curved like a sabre, and the second resembling a 

 flattened cone, stand on the nose and above the eye ; in the young animals 

 the foremost horn is the longest, whilst in the oid ones they are of equal 

 length, namely, a foot and a half, or more : though the older the rhinoce- 

 ros the shorter are its horns, as they wear them by sharpening them against 

 the trees, and by rooting up the ground with them when in a passion. 



" When the rhinoceros is quietly pursuing his way through his favourite 

 glades of mimosa bushes, (which his hooked upper lip enables him readily 

 to seize, and his powerful grinders to masticate), his horns, fixed loosely on 

 his skin, make a clapping noise by striking one against the other ; but on 

 the approach of danger, if his quick ear or keen scent make him aware of 

 the vicinity of a hunter, the head is quickly raised, and the horns stand 

 stiff and ready for combat on his terrible front. 



" The rhinoceros is often accompanied by a sentinel to give him warning, 

 a beautiful green-backed and blue-winged bird, about the size of a jay, 

 which sits on one of his horns. When he is standing at his ease among the 

 thick bushes, or rubbing himself up against a dwarf tree, stout and strong 

 like himself, the bird attends him that it may feed on the insects which ei- 

 ther fly about him, or which are found in the wrinkles of his head and neck. 

 The creeping hunter, stealthily approaching on the leeward side, carefully 

 notes the motions of the sentinel-bird ; for he may hear, though he cannot 

 see, the rhinoceros behind the leafy screen. If the monster moves his head 

 slightly and without alarm, the bird flies from his horns to his shoulder, 

 remains there a short time, and then returns to its former strange perch ; 

 but if the bird, from its more elevated position and better eyes, notes the 

 approach of danger, and flies up in the air suddenly, then let the hunter 

 beware ; for the rhinoceros instantly rushes desperately and fearlessly to 

 wherever he hears the branches crack. 



" Thick and clumsy though the legs of the rhinoceros are, yet no man, 

 unless possessed of the powers of my chief huntsman, Henri ck Buys, can 

 hope to escape him by fleetness of foot on open ground ; once he has a man 

 fairly in his wicked eye, and there is no broken ground or bush for conceal- 

 ment, destruction is certain. The monster, snorting and uttering occasion- 

 ally a short fiendish scream of rage, bears down in a cloud of dust, tearing 

 up the ground with his curved plough-share, kicking out his hind legs in a 

 paroxysm of passion, and thrusting his horns between the trembling legs of 

 his flying victim, he hurls him into the air as if he were a rag, and the poor 

 wretch falls many yards off. The brute now looks about for him, and if 

 there is the least movement of life, he runs at him, rips him open, and tram- 

 ples him to a mummy ! " 



It is to be regretted that Sir James did not adopt the pre- 

 caution of getting some judicious friend, with a knowledge of 

 Zoology, to peruse his manuscript before it went through the 

 press. Here we have the description of an animal, that is 



