ELEPHANT, TAPIR, HYRAX, RHINOCEROS 165 



Less than .1 hundred years ago the range of tin- fast-disappearing species extended from the 

 northwestern districts of the Cape Colonyto Abyssinia, and at that time it must have been plentiful 

 '\ 11 almi 1st the whole of the intervening country. It never seems to have penetrated i nt< > the equa- 

 torial forest regions of West Central Africa, where the climate is probably too damp to suit its require- 

 ments ; for both species of African rhinoceros appear to like a dry climate, ami not to object to very 

 arid surroundings. At the same time they never wander many miles from a river or pool, and drink 

 regularly every night, and in hot weather probably very often .1 second time in the early morning. 



In Southern Africa the black rhinoceros appears to attain to a larger size than in the coun- 

 tries farther north, ["o the south ol the Zambesi large bulls of this .species will stand 5 feet 8 

 inches at the shoulder; whilst the height of an adult bull, as taken by Mr. F. Jackson at 

 Naivasha in East Africa, wa 5 fi el 5 in< lies ; and Mr. A. II. Neumann gives the standing height of 

 another adult bull shot by himsell still farther north, near Lake Rudolph, as only 4 feet 9 inches. 



It is now gener- 

 ally recognised that 

 there is but onespecies 

 of prehensile lipped 

 rhinoceros in Africa, 

 though the horns, and 

 especially the hinder 

 one, differ in length 

 and shape to such an 

 extent that it was li mg 

 thought that there 

 were at least two 

 distinct species, those 

 with both horns of 

 equal or nearly equal 

 length basing been 

 distinguished from the 

 more common form, 

 with a comparatively 

 short second horn, as 

 the K 1:111. oa, this 

 being the name in 

 the Sechuana dialect 

 for a prehensile-lipped 



rhinoceros with horns of equal length. Speaking on this subject, Mr. A. II. Neumann, who has had 

 great experience with the black rhinoceros in East Africa, writes: " Length of horn is a purely 

 fortuitous individual trait ; and the extremely long horns (mostly of females) which have occasionally 

 been obtained from traders on the east coast, and brought home, are merely exceptionally fine 

 specimens, selected from among large numbers brought to the coast (the bulk of which, I am told, 

 go to China to be ground up into medicine), and do not belong to any distinct species, nor come 

 from any particular region. In proof of this contention I may mention that I have a 40-inch horn, 

 the owner of which I myself shot at the northern base of the Jambeni Range (near Kenia), in a 

 neighbourhood where I hunted a great deal and saw great numbers of rhinos, and shot a good 

 many. The vast majority have quite short horns — under a foot — and anything over 18 inches 

 is uncommon, while a length of 30 inches or upwards is extremely rare." The black rhinoceros, 

 I believe, never eats grass, but browses on the young shoots of trees and bushes, which are often 

 quite leafless and seem excessively dry. In this way it chews up and swallows great quantities 

 of dry -looking twigs, much of which passes through its stomach undigested. 



' S| Ntrman B. Smith, E,j. 



BLACK AFRICAN RHINOCEROS 

 This photograph, taken by a sportsman in Africa, shotcs a charging rhinoceros just before it ivas shot 



