666 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



force us to shoot in self-defence. Then we found the skull 

 of one of their dead kinsfolk; one of the party stopped to 

 pick it up and give it to one of the porters. We were talk- 

 ing and laughing; and all the time the two rhinos, their 

 ears cocked forward, looked toward us with solemn bewil- 

 derment. So off we strode, and left them still standing, 

 foolish and puzzled, among the sparse and withered trees, 

 in the dry landscape. 



If they got our wind the rhinos usually made off at once; 

 but if they merely saw us they would stare at us and move 

 to and fro, their ears up and perhaps their tails cocked, 

 with dull curiosity. We frequently found cow-herons with 

 them, and once a party of black-legged egrets. The herons 

 perched on their heads and backs with entire indifference, 

 and the result was that the rhinos generally looked as if they 

 had been splashed with whitewash. Once, while walking 

 through rather tall grass, we saw some white objects moving 

 rapidly off in single file through the grass tops; and it took 

 a second glance before we realized that they were white 

 herons perched on the back of a rhino bull. 



We have never known of a white rhino attacking man 

 or beast in wantonness; but one of the few white rhinos on 

 the South African game reserve, a bull, was charged, and 

 killed, by a stab behind the shoulder, by a solitary bull ele- 

 phant, a big tusker, which was also on the reserve. 



The white rhino has been termed a slow breeder. Of 

 course such a huge animal cannot breed like a guinea-pig. 

 But our experience goes to show that it is for its size really 

 a rather rapid breeder, that the cows breed before they are 

 fully adult, and that they breed again before the calf they 

 already have has left them. Two of the cows which we 



