30 sketch of the history of mammalia. 



Black or Common African Rhinoceros 



(7?A. hicornis, Linn.; Rh. Africanus, Cuv.). 



This huge animal, though driven from the precincts of 

 the colony, is still extensively spread throughout the 

 southern regions of Africa. When the Dutch first 

 formed their settlement on the shores of Table Bay, this 

 rhinoceros was a regular inhabitant of the thickets which 

 clothed the lower slopes of the mountain : but it has 

 retired, and continues to retire, before the advance of 

 colonization and the gun of the hunter. This species 

 differs from the Indian, not only in the possession of a 

 double horn, but in the absence of massive folds of skin, 

 and in wanting the incisor teeth. The skin is thick, 

 coarse, scabrous, and forms a deep furrow round the 

 short thick neck ; the head is heavy ; the eyes are small, 

 and the skin round them, and on the muzzle, and before 

 the ears, is wrinkled ; the upper lip is slightly ])roduced, 

 and prehensile. The anterior horn is long, fibrous at 

 the base, hard, and finely polished at the point ; the 

 posterior horn is short and conical. General colour 

 yellowish brown, with tints of purple upon the sides of 

 the head and muzzle ; eyes dark brown. Length about 

 eleven feet. A few black hairs fringe the ei\^e of the 

 ears and the tip of the tail. (Fig. 11.) Thisanimal feeds 

 upon brushwood, and the smaller branches of dwarf trees, 

 ** from which circumstance," says Dr. Smith, " it is in- 

 variably found frequenting wooded districts, and in those 

 situations its course may be often traced by the mutilations 

 of the bushes. The mass of vegetable matter consumed 

 does not appear to be in proportion to the bulk of the 

 animal : indeed, as it feeds but slowly, and ])asses much of 

 its time in idleness, it must be regarded as a very mode- 

 rate eater, and, considering that it appears to be fastidious 

 in the choice of its food, it is fortunate for its comfort 

 that it does not require more nourishment." Of the 

 senses of the rhinoceros, those of hearing and smell are 

 very acute, and aid the animal more than his sight in the 

 discovery of danger, the bulk of the body screening ob- 



