The Great Indian Rhinoceros 



although both may have their home in the same patch 

 of jungle. Those who have seen an Indian rhinoceros 

 careering round its enclosure in the Zoological Gardens 

 after a mud-bath, with its heavy, lumbering gallop, 

 will not fail to realise that a charge from such a 

 monster must be a serious matter. Fortunately, in 

 spite of stories to the contrary, the creature in its wild 

 state appears to be of a mild and harmless disposition, 

 seeking rather to escape from its enemies by flight 

 than to rout them by attack. When badly wounded, 

 or so hustled about by elephants and beaters as 

 to become bewildered, a rhinoceros will, however, 

 occasionally charge home. In such onslaughts it is the 

 common belief that the animal, like its African cousins, 

 uses its horn as its weapon of offence ; but this is an 

 error ; the real weapons being the triangular, sharp- 

 pointed lower tusks. With these a sweeping cut can 

 be made in the leg of an elephant, in much the same 

 way as a boar rips up a horse. Probably all the 

 Asiatic members of the group attack in the same 

 fashion. 



Like all its kindred, the great Indian rhinoceros 

 loves a mud-bath, and when plastered over with the 

 mud of some swamp or pool, looks a more than ordi- 

 narily unprepossessing creature. Its favourite haunts 

 are generally in the neighbourhood of swamps ; and 

 hilly districts are avoided. Morning and evening are 

 the chief feeding- times, the heat of the day being 

 generally passed in slumber. As already stated, the 

 structure of the teeth indicates that its food is chiefly 

 grass ; and such observations as have been made 

 confirm the truth of this inference. Individuals have 

 lived for over twenty years in the London Zoological 

 Gardens, and it is stated that others have been kept in 

 confinement for fully fifty years. Consequently, there 

 is no doubt that the animal is long-lived, and it has been 

 suggested that its term of life may reach as much as a 

 century. The cow gives birth to a single young one 



31 



