HOOK-LIPPED OR BLACK RHINOCEROS 655 



than those of the male. This female measured: length of 

 head and body along contour, ii feet 3 inches; tail, 26^ 

 inches; hind foot, 17 inches; ear, 8^ inches; height at 

 withers, 5 feet i inch. The greatest length of the skull is 

 23 inches, which is but half an inch less than the male. 

 Many of the old adults approach these dimensions very 

 closely, and show surprisingly little variation in size con- 

 sidering their great bulk. The skulls of fully adult animals 

 from British East Africa range in greatest length from 2i>^ 

 inches to 23^ inches. The female skulls may be distin- 

 guished from the male by their lesser width across the back 

 or occipital part. To this portion of the skull are attached 

 the great muscles which move the head and make the horns 

 effective in fighting, and it is no doubt this latter function 

 which has carried the development of the occipital part of 

 the skull in the male beyond that of the female. The nasal 

 boss or rounded tip of the nasal bones upon which the front 

 horn rests exhibits no differences in the two sexes such as we 

 find in the white species, or rather genus. In conformity 

 with this similarity in nasal bones in the two sexes we find 

 the horns indistinguishable in size of base. Although the 

 female does not carry a front horn^ having a smaller base, 

 she usually carries the longer and more slender horns. The 

 front and rear horns vary greatly, however, in respect to 

 one another. The typical condition is a front horn three 

 or four times the length of the rear horn, rounded in outline, 

 tapering gradually to a sharp point, and curving backward 

 in a wide arc. From such horns as these there is every 

 intermediate condition of relative length to the keitloa 

 variety in which the rear horn equals or exceeds the front 

 one in size. The usual length of the front horn is approxi- 

 mately 16 inches, but the record horns exceed this dimen- 

 sion greatly. The longest specimen in the National Museum 

 is one having a length of 29 inches, shot by Kermit Roose- 

 velt near Meru, a government station situated on the north- 

 east slope of Mount Kenia. The record horn for Africa, 

 recorded by Rowland Ward, is one with a length of ^3/^ 

 inches, from East Africa, now in the possession of Doctor C. 

 H. Osman. The second longest is one of 47 inches in length 

 belonging to the well-known district commissioner of Brit- 

 ish East Africa, Doctor S. L. Hinde. We have examined at 



