Game Animals of India, etc. 



Although now confined to Africa and the warmer 

 parts of Asia, rhinoceroses were formerly distributed 

 over the whole of the Old World (with the exception 

 of Australasia), where they ranged as far north as 

 Siberia, and were likewise represented by hornless 

 species in North America. The living species may 

 therefore be regarded as survivors of an ancient type. 

 The three species found in Asia are broadly dis- 

 tinguished from their African allies by the possession 

 of teeth in the front of the jaws, and by their skins 

 being thrown into a number of loose folds, instead of 

 forming a tight-fitting jacket. Their extinct relatives 

 appear to have been of the same general type. 



The great Indian rhinoceros is the largest of the three 

 named Asiatic species, and specially characterised by the 

 possession of a single horn, coupled with the fact that 

 the fold of skin in front of the shoulder is not con- 

 tinued across the back of the neck, and likewise by 

 the skin of the sides of the body being thickly studded 

 with large rounded tubercles, which have been aptly 

 compared to the heads of the rivets in an iron boiler. 

 Very characteristic, too, are the great folds of skin 

 which surround the back of the head like a coif ; the 

 head itself being larger and more elevated at the ears 

 than in either of the other Asiatic species. 



With the exception of a fringe on the margins of the 

 ears, and some bristly hairs on the tail, the coarse and 

 massive skin is completely nude ; the tubercles attaining 

 their maximum development on the shoulders, thighs, 

 and hind-quarters, where they not unfrequently 

 measure an inch in diameter. On the limbs the place 

 of these tubercles is taken by a number of small many- 

 sided scales. The main folds in the skin of the body 

 are three, namely, one in front of the shoulder, a 

 second behind the same, and a third in front of the 

 thighs and hind -quarters ; the second and third are 

 alone continued across the back, the first inclining 

 backwards towards the second and dying out on the 



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