THE WHITE RHINOCEROS 1 35 



S. latitude. Science is indebted to Burchell for 

 the first definite account of Rhinoceros simus : a 

 short description of the animal, which he com- 

 municated to de Blainville, appeared in the 

 "Journal de Physique" for August, 1817. The 

 Royal College of Surgeons' Museum still contains 

 an interesting memento of Burchell's expedition in 

 the shape of a pair of simus horns, the anterior of 

 which measures twenty inches. 



Subsequent investigations have demonstrated 

 that the white rhinoceros was once widely dis- 

 tributed over South Africa, wherever the grass- 

 lands were adapted to its habits, extending 

 from the Orange River in the south as far 

 north as the Zambesi. We may conveniently 

 take 18 1 2 as representing the era of pros- 

 perity, the open veldt then being dotted with 

 peaceful groups of white rhinoceroses — father, 

 mother, and calf — or with solitary individuals 

 standing motionless, awake but stupid, in soulless 

 meditation. We can readily picture the daily life 

 of these animals as narrated in many volumes of 

 sport and travel : the wallowing in the mud-bath, 

 the noon-tide siesta, the grazing over the vast 

 pasturages, the drinking at the lonely fountain : 

 while during the whole bovine round of sleeping 

 and wallowing, of eating and drinking, these 

 colossi were continually attended by their winged 

 sentinels, the faithful rhinoceros birds (Buphaga 



