THE RHINOCEROS. 23 



the right side they grow no higher than the flat part. There 

 is no other hair on this young rhinoceros, except a very 

 small quantity on the posterior edge of the upper part of the 

 ears. I have observed a very peculiar quality in this creature, 

 of listening to any noise or rumour in the street ; for though 

 he were eating, sleeping, or under the greatest engagements 

 nature imposes on him, he stops everything suddenly, and 

 lifts up his head with great attention till the noise is over. 



"The skin of the rhinoceros is thick and impenetrable. In 

 running one's fingers under one of the folds and holding it 

 up with the thumb at the top, it feels like a piece of board 

 half an inch thick. It is covered all over, more or less, with 

 hard incrustations like so many scabs, which are but small 

 on the ridge of the neck and back, but grow larger by de- 

 grees downwards toward the belly, and are largest on the 

 shoulders and buttocks, and continue pretty large upon the 

 legs, all along down ; but between the folds the skin is as 

 smooth and soft as silk, and easily penetrated ; of a pale flesh 

 colour, which does not appear to view in the folds except 

 when the rhinoceros extends them, but is always in view 

 under the fore and hinder parts of the belly, but the middle 

 is incrusted over like the rest of the skin. 



" As to the performance of this animal's several motions, let 

 us consider the great wisdom of the Creator in the contrivance 

 that serves him for that purpose. The skin is entirely im- 

 penetrable and inflexible ; if, therefore, it was continued all 

 over the creature as the skins of other animals, without any 

 folds, he could not bend any way, and consequently not per- 

 form any necessary action ; but that suppleness in the skins 

 of all other quadrupeds, which renders them flexible in all 

 parts, is very well compensated in this animal by those folds; 

 for since it was necessary his skin should be hard for his de- 

 fence, it was a noble contrivance that the skin should be so 

 soft and smooth underneath, that when he bends himself any 

 way, one part of this board-like skin should slip or shove 

 over the other, and that these several folds should be placed 

 in such places of his body as might facilitate the performance 

 of every voluntary motion he might be disposed to." 



The rhinoceros utters a note like the grunt of a boar ; it 

 increases to a shrill sound when he becomes enraged. It will 

 consume 124 pounds of vegetable food in the course of the 

 day, and drink in proportion. The animal described by Dr. 

 Parsons was fed with rice, sugar, and hay; "of the first he ate 

 seven pounds to about three pounds of the sugar ; they were 

 mixed together, and he ate this quantity every day, divided 

 into three meals, and about a truss of hay in the week, besides 



