THE JAVANESE RHINOCEROS. 473 



Sikkim, and Bhotan, being more common in the eastern portion of tiie 

 district, and may perhaps occur in the hill ranges east and south of the 

 Brahmaputra River. 



In India, in former times, the Rhinoceros was hunted on light, quick 

 horses. The huntsmen followed it from afar off, and without any noise, 

 till the animal became tired and was obliged to lie down and sleep. Then 

 the sportsmen approached it, taking care to keep to leeward, for it has a 

 very acute sense of smell. When they were within shot, they dismounted, 

 aimed at the head, fired, and galloped away ; for if the Rhinoceros is 

 only wounded, it rushes furiously upon its aggressors. When struck by 

 a bullet, it abandons itself wholly to rage. It rushes straight forward, 

 smashing, overturning, trampling under foot, and crushing to atoms 

 everything which comes in its way. • 



THE JAVANESE RHINOCEROS. 



The Javanese Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus, obtains its English 

 epithet from the belief that it was a species peculiar to Java. This is not 

 the case, for it is found in Tenasserim and the Sunderbunds, and is often 

 confounded with the Indian Rhinoceros. The difference, indeed, between 

 the two species is not sufficiently striking to be noticed by ordinar}- 

 beholders unless the two animals were close together. The Rhinoceros 

 sondaicus is about a third less in size than the Indian Rhinoceros ; its coat 

 of mail is much the same except that the tubercles on the hide are smaller 

 and of uniform size, while the polygonal facets of the skin have a few 

 small bristles growing upon a depression in the centre of each. The 

 strong fold or plait at the setting-on of the neck is continued across the 

 shoulders ; the neck-folds are less heavy and pendulous, and the posterior 

 plate crossing the buttock from the tail is less extended. 



The Javanese Rhinoceros, or Wara as it is called by the natives, is 

 reported to be a timid animal, but an instance is related of one attacking 

 a sailors' watering-part v in Java. It is diffused, more or less abundantly, 

 over the whole Indo-Chinese region and the Malayan peninsula, but is 

 not found in Sumatra. In Java it is found in the most elevated regions, 

 ascending with astonishing swiftness even to the tops of the mountains. 

 Its retreats are discovered by deeply-excavated passages which it forms 

 along the declivities of the hills. In Bengal it is found not only in the 

 Sunderbunds, but in the Rajmahal hills, near the Ganges, and several 

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