Game Animals of India, etc. 



weapons of offence. The cheek-teeth are characterised 

 by their flat plane of wear and complex pattern, the 

 former feature being indicative of grass-eating habits. 

 Teeth of this type have been discovered in Madras 

 and at Bunda, in the North-West Provinces, as well as 

 in the river-gravels of the Narbada valley, and may be 

 taken to indicate that the range of the species included 

 these parts of India. There is historical evidence to 

 prove that during the early part of the sixteenth 

 century the great Indian rhinoceros was common in the 

 Punjab, where it extended across the Indus as far as 

 Peshawur ; and down to the middle of the last century, 

 or even later, it was to be met with along the foot ot 

 the Himalaya as far west as Rohilcund and Nepal, and 

 it survived longer still in the Terai of Sikhim. Not 

 improbably the rhinoceroses found till about the year 

 1850 in the grass-jungles of the Rajmahal Hills, in 

 Bengal, belonged to the present species. Now, how- 

 ever, this animal has retreated almost, if not entirely, 

 to the eastward of the Tista valley, on the borders ot" 

 Kuch-Behar ; its main strongholds being the great 

 grass-jungles of that province and of Assam. 



In the jungles of Assam the Indian rhinoceros not 

 only dwells, but is as completely concealed as is a rabbit 

 in a cornfield. To those who have never seen Indian 

 grass-jungles, it may seem incredible that such a huge 

 animal should be hidden by such covert, but when it is 

 realised that the grass of which they are formed grows 

 to a height of between 10 and 20 feet, the difficulty 

 vanishes. As a matter of fact, the rhinoceros, like the 

 Indian buffalo, makes regular tunnels, or " runs," 

 among this gigantic grass ; and from these retreats it 

 may be driven out by beating with a line of elephants, 

 or by tracking on foot. When driven into the open, 



the animal will often stand for a few minutes, shakinsf 

 . ... . . o 



Its ears, before it makes up its mind in which direction 



to flee. A calf and its mother always issue forth 



together, but the old bulls and cows keep mostly apart, 



30 



