.)/.i.i/.i/.l/,/.l. 451 



It is a common, anil in mj o]iinion {jcniicions plan to anoint an elephant's head 

 with oil, as it not only darkens tlie colour of the skin and renders it more reee])tivc of 

 heat, but clogs the pores. A far preferable plan, I can certify by long experienco, is 

 to give a coat of pipe-clay or ■whiting over the elephant's liead before lie goes out. 

 This on drying turns white, and keep the head cool, enabling the animal to travel 

 much later in the day than he otherwise would, and in comparative comfort. As, 

 however, the JIahout cannot use a moiety of the pipe-clay in his curry, it is a plan 

 which never fails to be strenuously objected to. It is an excellent and most humano 

 one nevertheless. Crede experto. 



Order UNGULATA. 



a. rerissodnctyla. Toes uneven in nuiiiher. 



Famili/ Rhinocerotidse. 



IhiiNocEEOs, Linntcus. 



Feet with three toes. Head with one or two horns behind the nose. Dentition 

 variable. Molars complex, and characteristic of the species. 



11. SoNDAicus, F. Cuv. 



The lesser one-horned Illiinoeoros. Kyan-hsen. ' Elephant Rhinoceros.' 



Mr. Blyth's remarks on the Ithinoceroses of Burma are so interesting that I 

 quote them at length : 



" The Lesser one-homed Rhinoceros. So far as I have been able to satisfy myself, 

 this is the only single-horned Rhinoceros of the Indo-Chinese and Malayan countries, 

 its range of distribution extending northward to the Garo hills, where it co-oxista 

 with the large R. indicus, and to eastern and Lower Bong;d. It would appear to be 

 the only Rhinoceros that inhabits the Sundarbans, occurring within a few miles of 

 Calcutta ; and yet I know of but one instance of its having been lirought to Europe 

 alive, and then, it was not recognized as differing from R. indicus, which latter is not 

 uncommonly brought down the Brahmaputra from Assam, and sent to Europe from 

 Calcutta. There is reason, also, to believe that R. sondaieiis is the species which was 

 formerly hunted by the ]\r(ighul Emperor Baber on the banks of the Indus. South- 

 ward it inhabits the Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. It is about 

 a third smaller than R. indicun, from which it is readily distinguished by having the 

 tubercles of the hide unil'ormly of the same small size, and also by having a fold or 

 plait of the skin crossing the nape, in addition to that behind the shoulder-blades. 

 In R. indicus the corresponding fold docs not thus meet its opposite, but curves back- 

 ward to join — or nearly so in some individuals — the one posterior to the shoulders. 

 A fine living male, before referred to, was exhibited for some years about Great 

 Britain, and was finally deposited in the Liverpool Zoological Gardens, where it died, 

 and its preserved skeleton is now in the anatomical museum of Guy's Hospital, 

 Southwark. Two passable figures of it from life are given in the 'Naturalists' 

 Library,' where it is mistaken for the huge R. indicus." 



Dr. Mason writes thus of this species: "The common single-homed Rhinoceros 

 is very abundant. Though often seen on the uninhabited banks of large rivers, as the 

 Tenasscrim, they are fond of ranging the mountains, and I have frecjuently met with 

 their wallowing-places on the banks of mountain streams two or three thousand feet 

 above the plains. They are as fond of rolling themselves in mud, as a hog or a 

 buffalo. The Karens when travelling have quite as much fear of a rhinoceros as they 

 have of a tiger. When provoked, the rhinoceros, they say, pursues his enemy most 

 nnrelentingly, and with indomitable perseverance. If to escape his rage the hunts- 

 man retreats to a tree, the beast, it is said, will take his stand uuih'mcath lor three 

 or four days in succession, without once leaving his antagonist. There arc seasons 

 when the rhinoceros is very dangerous and ferocious, attacking everything that comes 

 near its haunts, yet it is believed the stories related of them are exaggerated. In the 

 Latin Vulgate the rhinoceros is put where unicorn is read in the English Bible, and 



