2 8 RHINOCEROSES 



they browse throughout the night : making full allowance for this, it 

 is difficult to know how they support their huge bulk on the poor 

 food afforded in many localities by the sparse scrubby bush. In cold 

 weather, and during the dry season, they often commence to feed 

 immediately on waking, not visiting the water till midnight or later, 

 this being their only drink for the day ; but in hot weather they pay 

 a second visit to the water at dawn, when, if a mud-hole is to be 

 found, they also wallow, a process essential to such tick-infested 

 creatures. After this they seek their mid-day resting-place, seldom 

 moving much after 9 or lo A.M., except in the wet season, when they 

 may be seen browsing throughout the day. They feed entirely upon 

 the astringent leaves of various shrubs and bushes, roots, and the 

 leaves and twigs of the thorny acacias ; and when eating, they make 

 a loud champing noise with their jaws. Rhinoceroses almost invari- 

 ably lie with their tails to the wind, and, when disturbed, start off at 

 a slinging trot up-wind, with their tails twisted over their backs ; but, 

 if suddenly alarmed or closely pursued, they break into a gallop with 

 which only a good horse can keep up, and which may be maintained 

 for a long distance. Although they usually run up-wind, yet when 

 wounded or conscious of pursuit they pursue the opposite direction. 

 I have seen a calf about fourteen days old on October 28, and one 

 on November 2 about a month old, while a friend shot a cow in 

 October accompanied by a four- or five-months-old calf Apparently 

 the calves are usually born at the end of the rainy season, the period 

 of gestation being probably sixteen or eighteen months. These 

 animals are in best condition in the autumn, when the flesh, although 

 coarse, is well flavoured. 



" These rhinoceroses are so unwary and sleep so heavily that it 

 would be most easy to stalk them but for the fact that in South 

 Africa they are almost invariably attended by rhinoceros-birds {Textor 

 erythrorhynchus), so that great judgment and the utmost care are 

 necessary to avoid discovery. In Central Africa they are less fre- 

 quently attended by the birds ; but even then they often seem 

 singularly restive and suspicious when approached, as though they 

 knew instinctively that danger was threatening. Probably this is 

 owing to their acute hearing, which almost rivals their keenness of 

 scent. Although the easiest to kill of all large game, yet, if not hit 

 properly, they give a deal of trouble to secure. Shot through the 

 heart or both lungs they succumb quickly, though seldom falling on 

 the spot ; but if hit only in one lung they will travel for hours, despite 

 the flow of quantities of blood from the mouth and nostrils. The 



