WHITE RHINOCEROS 43 



could not be approached closely, as the birds always gave the alarm 

 by screeching and running about their heads in an agitated manner. 

 When white rhinoceroses got the wind of a human being, even if 

 several hundred yards distant, they always decamped. fThey start off 

 at a trot, which is so swift that I never saw a man on foot able to keep 

 up with one. If pursued on horseback, they break from their trot into 

 a gallop, and maintain for a considerable distance a speed perfectly 

 astonishing in animals of their huge size and ungainly appearance.) A 

 white rhinoceros was easier to shoot from horseback than one of the 

 black species, as the latter animal is not only swifter, but has the habit 

 of constantly swerving as one ranges alongside, and never offering 

 anything but its hind-quarters, whereas one could gallop a little wide 

 of and in front of a white rhinoceros, and thus get a good chance of 

 shooting it through the lungs or heart as it came broadside past. 



" A shot through the upper part of the heart of a white rhinoceros 

 was soon fatal ; while, as the lungs are remarkably large, one shot 

 through both lungs also usually succumbed quickly. If, however, 

 wounded in one lung, or shot too far back, it was little use following a 

 white rhinoceros, as I found that if it did not succumb to its wounds 

 within a short distance, it was likely to travel many miles before dying 

 or coming to a halt. With a broken hind-leg, neither white nor black 

 rhinoceroses can run ; but I have seen one of each species travel a mile 

 with a broken shoulder, going off first at a gallop on the three sound 

 legs, and then slowing down to a halting kind of trot. 



" When feeding, white rhinoceroses hold their mouths near the 

 ground, as they eat nothing but grass, which at certain seasons of the 

 year is very short. They also hold their heads low at all other times ; 

 and whether walking, trotting, or galloping, the great square nose was 

 always close to the ground, and if the animal carried a straight horn 

 over 2\ feet in length, or one slightly bent forward, as is sometimes 

 the case, the point got worn flat in front by constant contact with the 

 ground. The calf always walked in front of its mother, who apparently 

 guided it with the point of her horn, which seemed to rest on the calf's 

 hind-quarters, as was observed by Gordon Gumming, who gave a good 

 illustration of this mode of procedure in his work on South African 

 hunting. As already mentioned, the white rhinoceros was sluggish ; 

 while as a general rule it was the reverse of vicious, as the small 

 number of accidents which occurred during the extermination of 

 this once numerous species in South Africa sufficiently proves. It is 

 true that Oswell had one of his horses transfixed by the horn of one 

 of these animals, while an elephant-hunter was severely injured by 



