THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



of the bush rhino. As to viciousness, I beheve that the 

 rhino of the bush is much more bad tempered than the one 

 inhabiting the open plains, which is said to be true also of 

 lions. 



One of the most curious of pachyderms is without a 

 doubt the African rhinoceros. He distinguishes himself 

 from his Indian, one-horned cousin by having two horns, 

 one straight behind the other. Both horns vary a great 

 deal in size. Usually the front horn is the larger of the 

 the two, curving slowly backward, much in the shape of a 

 Turkish saber, and being in most cases round, very thick 

 at its base, and tapering to a sharp point at the end. The 

 other horn is generally much smaller and somewhat like a 

 short Roman sword, being much flatter than the front horn 

 and almost straight. 



The front horn of the male rhinoceros is a great deal 

 thicker than that of the female, but a good many rhinos 

 have been seen and killed on which the second horn was 

 larger than the first. I myself have seen on the Sotik 

 plains a huge female rhinoceros which had the second horn 

 very much larger than the first, and curving forward over 

 the first horn, which was a small, swordlike one, just ex- 

 actly as the second horn generally is. The curved, second 

 horn of this rhinoceros protruded at least six inches in 

 front of the nose and appeared to be almost resting on the 

 top of the small front horn. 



I had told Colonel Roosevelt that I was only going to 

 stay on the Sotik plains for about a week or ten days, as 

 he himself had planned to go there right after me, and, 

 hoping that the colonel might be able to secure this 

 strangely shaped head for the Natural Museum at Wash- 



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