THE SET,Ors C()M,I-;cri()N. S8 



Selous* gives the following account of the distrihution of this 

 llhinoceros during the period 1872 to 1881. "... 1 now l-ouic lo 

 the Prehensile-lipped Khinoceros ( /j*. hiconiis'), of which 1 main- 

 tain there is hut one true species, in spite of whatever may he said 

 h\' old Dutch hunters or natives to the eontrarv. This animal is 

 still fairh' numerous in many districts of 8outh-Eastern Africa, 

 although, like its congener, the Square-mouthed Rhinoceros, it has 

 been almost exterminated in the more westerly porticnis of the 

 country. In 1879 there were still two or three drinking in the 

 Upper Cliobe, to the nortli-west of tlie Sunta outlet. Eetwcen 

 the Chobe and the Zamhesi there are none, and accordiny- to the 

 natives there never were any tliere, even wlien the Malcololo first 

 came into the country ; but directly the Zamhesi has been crossed 

 they are again found, and extend a})parently through all Central 

 Africa right up to Abyssinia. Tlie Prehensile-lipped llhinoceios 

 lives exclusively upon bush and roots, eating not only the voung 

 leaves as they sprout from the end of a twig, Init also chewing up 

 a good deal of the twig itself. It is owing to the fact that this 

 species lives upon bush that its range is very mucli more extended 

 than that of the Square-mouthed llhinoceros ; for there are many 

 large districts of country in the neighbourhood of the Zambesi 

 to the eastward of the Victoria Palls covered almost entirely with 

 an endless succession of rugged lulls, almost devoid of grass, thouyh 

 well wooded, in all of which districts the Prehensile-lipped Rhino- 

 ceros is numerous, as it thrives well upon the scrubby Imsh with 

 which the hill-sides and valleys are covered; wiiereas the s(piare- 

 mouthed species, though common in the forest-clad sand-belts and 

 broad grassy valleys which always skirt the hills, is seldom or 

 never found amongst the hills themselves, which is d(»ubtless 

 because the jjasturage is too scanty to enable them to exist. . . ." 



It was in the same paper that Selous very clearly showed that 

 liliinoceroti l-cifloii f was simply a variety of bicoi-ui.-- 



431 — 19.7.15.511. Skull and nonis. August, 1883. Lfmsengaisi 



Eiver, Mashonaland, Southern Khodesia. Length of front 

 horn on outside curve 21| ; circumference at base 19^ : 

 length of rear horn on side 12 ; circumference at base 19. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 728. 



t A. Smith, Cat. Mamm. S. African Mus. p. 7. 1837. 



a 2 



