158 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



without intelligence, feeling, or docility, and, though 

 emulating the elephant in size, is infinitely inferior in 

 point of sagacity. The latter, with his beautiful, intelli- 

 gent eye, awakens the sympathy of man ; while the rhi- 

 noceros is the very image of brutal violence and stupidity. 



2. " It was formerly supposed that Africa had but one 

 rhinoceros; but the researches of modern travelers have 

 discovered no less than four different species, two white 

 and two black, each of them with two horns. In both 

 species the upper lip projects over the lower, and is capa- 

 ble of being extended like that of the giraffe, thus en- 

 abling the animal to grasp the branches on whose foliage 

 he intends to feed. The black species are extremely ill- 

 natured, and, with the exception of the buffalo, are the 

 most dangerous of all the animals of South Africa. The 



o 



white species are distinguished by one of the horns attain- 

 ing the prodigious length of four feet. 



3. u Although the black and white rhinoceroses are 

 members of the same family, their mode of living and 

 disposition are totally different. The food of the former 

 consists almost entirely of roots, which they dig up with 

 their larger horn, or of the branches and sprouts of the 

 thorny acacia ; while the latter live exclusively on grasses. 

 Perhaps in consequence of their milder food they are of 

 a timid, unsuspecting nature, which renders them an easy 

 prey, so that they are fast melting away before the march 

 of the European trader ; while the black species, from 

 their greater ferocity and wariness, maintain their place 

 much longer than their more timid relations. The flesh 

 of the black rhinoceros has a bitter taste, and, like the 

 generality of ill-natured animals, not an ounce of fat on 

 the bones ; while that of the white species is juicy and 

 well -flavored. 



4. " The shape of the rhinoceros is unwieldy and 



