NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 187 



after him with his mouth open — and such a mouth ! — in 

 all the beauty of ugliness. This playful running after its 

 friends open-mouthed may be interpreted in two ways : 

 first, as it would act with its mother, half in play, half as 

 a hint for nourishment ; and secondly, as a lamb, a goat, 

 or a calf butts, before their horns have budded, betraying 

 a consciousness on the part of our gambolling pachyderm 

 of the locality where the terrible offensive armour is to 

 be with which hereafter he may bite with a vengeance. 



Professor Owen states that we may reckon this young 

 animal to be ten months old, and that it is now seven 

 feet long, and six and a-half feet in girth at the middle 

 of the barrel-shaped trunk, which is supported, clear of 

 the ground, on very short and thick legs, each terminated 

 by four spreading hoofs, of which the innermost is the 

 smallest on the forefoot ; the two middle ones, answering 

 to those which are principally developed in the hog, are 

 the largest in both feet. 



The hind-limb (writes Professor Owen in continuation) is buried 

 in the skin of the flank nearly to the prominence of the heel. 

 Thick flakes of cuticle are in process of detachment from the sole. 

 There is a well-deflned white patch behind each foot, but I looked 

 in vain for any indications of the glandular orifice which exists in 

 the same part in the rhinoceros. The naked hide covering the 

 broad back and sides is of a dark India-rubber colour, impressed 

 by numerous fine \n-inkles crossing each other, but disposed almost 

 transversely. When I first saw the beast it had just left its bath, 

 and a minute drop of a glistening secretion was exuding from each 

 of the conspicuous muco-sebaceous pores, which are dispersed over 

 the whole integument, at intervals of from eight lines to an inch. 

 This gave the hide, as it glistened in the sunshine, a very peculiar 

 aspect. When the animal was younger the secretion had a 

 reddish colour, and being poured out more abundantly, the whole 

 surface became painted over with it every time he quitted his 

 bath. 



Nothing can be more correct than this admirable de- 

 scription, with the exception of the alleged nakedness of 

 the skin. The integument, at first sight, does appear 

 naked ; but it is found, as I have stated above, on a close 



