RHINOCEROSES. '231 



NOTE XXVI. 



ON THE RHINOCEROSES 

 FROM THE EAST-INDIAN-ARCHIPELAGO 



BY 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



December 1894. 



It seems that the distribution of the Rhinocerotidae 

 over the islands of the Malayan Archipelago is still a 

 puzzle to all the authors, unscientific as well as scientific 

 ones, even to the most modern writers on the subject. 

 This fact is the more surprising as fifty years ago the 

 question was nearly settled and as since the year 1876 the 

 problem in fact does not exist more at all. 



Sal. Muller and Herm. Schlegel said 1839— 44 i), that 

 in Sumatra was living Rhinoceros sumatrensis , and in Java 

 another species Rhinoceros sondaicus; the latter perhaps 

 also in Borneo. Beautifully executed plates illustrate their 

 accurate and excellent descriptions. The open question thus 

 was this : does there exist a Rhinoceros in Borneo , and if 

 so, to what species may it belong^ 



Jerdon ^) writing in \^1 4^ vaeniiouQ^ Rhinoceros sondaicus 

 from Java and Borneo , Rh. sumatrensis from Sumatra. 

 He evidently accepted Müller's hypothesis as a fact. 



Prof. Flower ^) recognized in 1876 a young skull of a 

 Rhinoceros from Borneo , Labuan , by Mr. Low , as belonging 



1) Bijdragen tot de Nataurlijke Historie der Rhinocerossen van den Indischen 

 Archipel; see Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der Neder- 

 landsche overzeesche Bezittingen door C. J. Temminck. Zoölogie. 



2) The Mammals of India, p. 234. 



3) P. Z. S. L. p. 450. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XVI, 



