ZOOLOGY 



373 



22^. A IIAI.K KHlXi 



The two exceptions, however, to this rule seem to be the zebra and the 

 rhinoceros. Not infrequently tlie East African rhinoceroses produce horns 

 of extraordinary length. The record, I believe, is forty-seven inches for tlie 

 front hprn. I obtained from the north-eastern part of Uganda (Karamojo 

 country) a horn measuring forty-three inches long. It is always said by the 

 natives that these very long horns are grown by old females. I do not 

 know whether this is true, but I only know in my own experience that 

 I have never seen the head of a male pointed-lipped rhinoceros bearing an 

 exceedingly long front horn, though his front horn is always thicker and 

 larger at the base than it is in the female, female horns are not only 

 long, but slender, and sometimes the extremity is a little thicker than 

 the diameter of the horn lower down — that is to say, the long front horn, 

 instead of tajjering to a j^oint, becomes very slender, and then expands 

 into a s})atulate tip. It is difidcult to see of what use this very 

 attenuated horn can he, as it looks too slender to be of much use as a 

 weapon of offence with such a heavy mass behind it. I am inclined 

 to believe that all these very long horns coming from the Uganda 

 Protectorate belong to the (miscalled) white rhinoceros, the rhinoceros 



