THE MOHOGOO. 48 1 



up the ground for several yards with its horns, and assaulting large 

 bushes in the most violent manner. On these bushes they work for 

 hours with their horns, at the same time snortii.g and blowing loudly, 

 nor do they leave them in general until they have broken them to pieces. 

 During the day they will be found lying asleep, or standing indolently 

 in some retired part of the forest, or under the base of the mountains, 

 sheltered from the power of the sun by some friendly grove of umbrella- 

 topped mimosas. In the evening they comme?ice their nightly ramble, 

 and wander over a great extent of country. They usually visit the foun- 

 tains between the hours of nine and twelve o'clock at night ; and it is on 

 these occasions that they may be most successfully hunted, and with the 

 least danger." 



The food of the Black Rhinoceros, whether the Borele or the Keitloa, 

 is composed of roots, which the animal ploughs out of the ground with 

 its horn, and of the young branches and shoots of the wait-a-bit thorn. 

 It is rather remarkable that tlie black species is poisoned by one of the 

 Euphorbiaces, which is eaten with impunity by the two white species. 



THE WHITE RHINOCEROSES. 



The White Rhinoceros or Mohogoo, Rhinoceros simus (Plate 

 XXXV), so called from its pale color, is a very different animal from 

 those of which we have been treating. It grows to more than six feet 

 and a half high at the withers, where there is a sort of square hump, 

 and the head is a foot longer than in the Keitloa, being nearly one-third 

 of the entire length of the body, with an exceedingly long anterior horn, 

 attaining to more than four feet in length, while the hind horn is very 

 short, not exceeding seven or eight inches. " Its color," I'emarks Mr. 

 Chapman, "is of such a light neutral-gray, as to look nearly as white as 

 the canvas tilt of a wagon." His fellow-traveler, Mr. Baines, describing 

 a freshly -killed one, tells us that " the skin was of a light pinky -gray, 

 deepening into a bluish neutral tint on parts of the head, neck, and legs. 

 The limbs, shoulders, cheeks, and neck were marked with deep wrinkles, 

 crossing each other so as to have a lozenge-shaped reticulated appear- 

 ance ; but the only approach to a fold was a slight collar-like mark across 

 the throat. The mouth was very small, and the limbs were dwarfish 

 compared with the bulk of the carcass. The eyes were small and set flat 

 on the side of the head, with no prominence of brow, and in such a posi- 

 61 



