WHITE OR SQUARE-MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 667 



found accompanied by calves had not yet shed all their 

 milk teeth; and one cow, accompanied by a good-sized calf, 

 was nearly on the point of giving birth to another. 



The white or square-mouthed rhinoceros is a long- 

 headed, tall-bodied animal with a flattened or truncate nose 

 and a wide, square mouth. The excessively long head dis- 

 tinguishes this species at once from all other living forms. 

 The ears are much longer and the feet larger than in the 

 black rhinoceros. One of the peculiarities of this species 

 is the prominent, rounded, fleshy hump upon the nape of the 

 neck just forward of the withers. This hump is purely a 

 muscular structure and receives no support from the dorsal 

 processes of the cervical vertebrae. With the exception of 

 three short folds the skin is smooth and lacks even such 

 shallow markings as the rib furrows which are so character- 

 istic of the black rhinoceros. The best marked of these 

 folds, and the only one which is permanent, is a transverse 

 fold on the foreleg encircling the limb just above the elbow. 

 When the head is held level with the back a prominent 

 transverse fold is formed on the nape just behind the ears. 

 This fold disappears when the head is lowered in feeding 

 and another longer transverse one is formed on the throat. 

 The young at birth do not difl^er from the adults in color 

 or skin structure and but slightly in proportions. The 

 changes which take place with age are chiefly the growth 

 of the horns and the lengthening of the head. 



In size this species exceeds but slightly the big Indian 

 single-horned species and but little the black African species. 

 Measurements of the length and height of the Indian species 

 given by Lydekker * are scarcely inferior to authentic di- 

 mensions of the largest South African specimens. Measure- 

 ments of mounted skeletons of these two species show the 

 Indian very little less in size. The black rhinoceros of East 

 Africa stands several inches lower and measures less in 

 length of head. The superiority in size of the white rhi- 

 noceros over the other living species has been greatly ex- 

 aggerated. The utmost that can be said is that there is a 

 slight average superiority. 



*" Great and Small Game of India, Burma and Tibet." 



