THE WHITE RHINOCEROS 131 



It will be noted that in the above account no 

 reference has been made to colour as a distin- 

 guishing mark of the white rhinoceros. Structural 

 details only have been touched upon, and these 

 are of course always the most important. As a 

 matter of fact, however, colour plays but little part 

 in differentiating between the so-called " white" 

 and " black " rhinoceroses, since both are of a dull 

 slaty grey. Several explanations of the Boer 

 name " witte rhenoster " (white rhinoceros) may 

 here be considered. 



1. The usual explanation is that the first indi- 

 viduals encountered were seen when emerging 

 from their mudbath, and that their caked hides 

 gave them a whitish appearance. 



2. A little observation, even in a zoological 

 garden, will amply show that the colour even of a 

 dark animal may vary in intensity, according to 

 the amount of sunlight concentrated upon it. It 

 is now so common for the up-to-date sportsman to 

 be armed with camera as well as with rifle, that 

 most recent works on African hunting are 

 ornamented with excellent engravings from photo- 

 graphs taken on the veldt. Several recently- 

 published photos show that even the black species 

 in full sunlight may appear quite white : and 

 Drummond, in the proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society for 1876, has pointed out that the sun 

 shining full on a bull of the white species may 



