RHINOCEROS SIMUS. 241 



NOTE XLI. 



ON RHINOCEROS SIMUS, BURCHELL IN THE 

 LEYDEN MUSEUM. 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



October 1890. 



According to Dr. P. L. Sclater (Nature, September 25, 

 1890, p. 520) Mr. F. Selous says in the Field of August 

 1 6 as follows : — » it was within a mile of this spot that , 

 two years previously (i. e. in 1883), I shot two white 

 Rhinoceroses (Rhmoceros simus) , the last of their kind 

 that have been killed (and , perhaps , that ever loill he kill- 

 ed) by an Englishman. They were male and female, and 

 I preserved the skin of the head and the skull of the former 

 for the South African Museum in Cape town , where they 

 now are .... To the best of my belief, the great white or 

 square-mouthed Rhinoceros , the largest of modern terrestrial 

 mammals after the Elephant, is on the very verge of 

 extinction, and in the next year or two will become ab- 

 solutely extinct. If in the near future some student of na- 

 tural history should wish to know what this extinct beast 

 really was like , he will find nothing in all the Museums 

 of Europe and America to enlighten him upon the subject , 

 but some half-dozen skulls and a goodly number of the 

 anterior horns." 



After having pointed out the four striking characteristics by 

 which the heads of Rh. simus and Rh. hicornis may be distin- 

 guished, Dr. Sclater concludes as follows : » I wish to call special 



Notes from tlie Leyden INXuseum, "Vol. XII. 



16 



