HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 643 



either on their sides or in a kneeUng position. They not 

 only fed on the thorny, partially leaved twigs — the black 

 rhino is a browser, whereas the white rhino is exclusively 

 a grazer — but also fed greedily in the bare plains on the 

 low-growing, shrubby plants, only a few inches high, with 

 woody stems. I do not believe that they were really graz- 

 ing, but together with the shrub stems they cropped they 

 swallowed the tough jointed grass. They also ate aloes 

 and a kind of prickly euphorbia with a blistering juice; it 

 is hard to understand how even their palates could stand 

 the thorns and the acrid sap. We saw them feed at noon; 

 once we stumbled on one feeding by moonlight; but their 

 favorite feeding times were in the morning and afternoon. 



Like other game, rhinos are assailed by various insect 

 pests. Biting flies annoy them much; even when resting 

 their ears are usually in motion to drive away their winged 

 assailants. The ticks swarm on them; loathsome creatures, 

 swollen with blood, which might be so crowded under the 

 armpits, in the groin, and in the soft parts generally that 

 they looked like mussels on an old dock. We do not quite 

 understand why the tick-birds fail to keep down these ticks. 

 These tick-birds, rather handsome, noisy creatures, are in 

 most places the well-nigh invariable attendants of rhinos 

 when the latter dwell on the plains or in fairly open bush. 

 They clamber all over their huge hosts, like nuthatches 

 round a tree trunk, and usually go in flocks. So invariably 

 are they attendants upon the big game that if we heard 

 them chattering as we threaded our way among bushes we 

 were always at once on the alert to see a rhino. Sometimes 

 they are wary, and chatter and fly off on seeing the hunter; 

 at other times they pay but little heed; and the rhino may 



