The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XI .).\^■^■.\I{^■, nm No. i 



THE SQUARE MOUTHED RHINOCEROS 



Hv 'I'lIK.ODOHK l{(»()SKVKi;r 



Colonel Hoosd'cll li(i-< /insiitlcil to llic Ani(riciui Miiscuiii lira x/^rc////* //.s of IIk rare 



W/iitc lihiiio, uHil (jives to the Journal from his ]>ersonal experiences (ind 



observations in Africa the followinff (iccoiinl of this great horned beast of th( 



Lddo. (hi lh( (irrirol of the skins (d lh( Musiinn, irorl: icill begin (d 



once on the task of preparing and mounting thou for exhibition. 



OX our trip in Africa for the Smithsonian, in adihtion to the scries 

 of sj)ccinicns of hi^- ^anie for the Smithsonian itself, we also pre- 

 ])are(l a few skins of the lar<iest and rarest animals for other col- 

 lections: a head of the white rhinoceros for Mr. Hornaday's noteworthy 

 collection, a hull elej)hant for the Tniversity of California, two cow ele- 

 phants and a l)ull and cow of the white rhino for the American Museum of 

 Natural History. I was especially anxious to j^et this pair of white rhinos, 

 because the American Museum is in my own city, because my father W'as 

 one of its founders and because my admiration is j;reat for the work of the 

 men who have raised this institution to its present hi<i,h position. The. 

 skins of the two cow elephants were prepared by Carl Akeley, with whom 

 I had jioiie after them; the other specimens were preserved by b'dmund 

 Heller and H. J. ( 'uiminf^hame as a labor of lo^■e. 



The white rhinoceros is, next to the el<>phant, the largest of existing mam- 

 mals. There are three ^roujjs of existing- rhinoceros: the two-horned species 

 of Africa, the one-horned species of the Indian region and the little Suinatran 

 rhinoceros — the three separate stems of ancestry fi"oin<i- back at least to early 

 Pliocene and probably to Miocene times. At one time rhinos of many dif- 

 ferent kinds and covcrinfi' the widest variety of form and habit abounded in 

 America, and in Europe species lasted to the days of ])ala'olithic man. 



There are two wholly distinct kinds in .Vfrica, dilferinu- from one another 

 as much as the moose does from the wajjiti. They are commonly called 

 the black and the white; but as in fact they are both of a dark slate hue, it 

 is better to call the former th( li()()k-n!)ped and the lat ler the s(|uare-m(iuthed. 

 They inter^^rade in size, but the .scjuare-mouthed a\'erages bigficr and 

 longer-horned. The hook-lij)jK'd or conunon black kind is still plentiful in 



♦The illustrations nn- usi-d through tlio courti'sy orCluirlos Scril)ricr's Sons. 



3 



