1054 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



The Indian rhinoceros is further characterized by its teeth. As a 

 Teeth rule, there is but a single pair of broad incisors in the upper jaw, al- 



though in some cases there may be a smaller pair behind them. In the lower jaw 

 there is one pair of long, triangular, pointed tusks, and between them a pair of small, 

 cylindrical incisors which can be of no functional importance. The upper molar 

 teeth have tall crowns, and in the absence of a buttress at their front outer angle, 

 and the flat plane formed by their worn surface, resemble the one represented in the 

 lower figure on p. 1051. They are, however, distinguished from the latter by the 

 presence of a small, vertical plate, projecting from the outer wall into the extremity 

 of the middle valley.' It will be obvious that this flat plane of wear of the cheek- 

 teeth implies that the jaws have a backward and forward grinding motion, and not 

 a champing action; such a mode of mastication being similar to that existing in 

 horses and cattle. 



This rhinoceros is exclusively confined to India, and at the present 

 Distribution 



day, according to Mr. Blanford, is almost restricted to the Assam plain, 



being rarely, if ever, found to the westward of the Tista river. Twenty or thirty 

 years ago, it was, however, still common in the so-called terai country at the foot of 

 the Sikkim Himalayas, while some years earlier it frequented the sub-Himalayan 

 districts of Nipal, and ranged as far west as Rohilcund; while the writer last quoted 

 believes that, about the year 1850, it also occurred in the grass jungles of the Gan- 

 ges valley at the north end of the Rahmahal hills in Bengal. In the early part of 

 the sixteenth century it ranged over the Punjab as far westward as Peshawur; and 

 since its fossilized remains are found in the Northwest Provinces, the Narbada valley, 

 and Madras, it may be inferred that the Indian rhinoceros formerly ranged over the 

 greater part of Peninsular India, in localities suited to its habits. 



The Indian rhinoceros is a denizen of the great grass jungles that 

 cover such a large portion of the plains of India, and from this circum- 

 stance, coupled with the general resemblance of its molar teeth to those of the Afri- 

 can Burchell's rhinoceros, which is known to be a grass eater, it may be assumed 

 that its food is chiefly grass. Regarding the density and height of these jungles, 

 General Kinloch writes that, ' ' year after year, in the short space of two or three 

 months, these giant grasses shoot up to a height of from twenty to thirty feet, 

 forming, with the wild cardamum, various other broad-leaved plants, and numerous 

 creepers, a tangled cover which shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the buf- 

 falo, as effectually as a field of standing corn affords concealment to- the partridge or 

 the quail. I have seen a line of about fifteen elephants beating a strip of reeds not 

 more than two hundred yards in width, and I could hardly see the grass shake. 

 There was not as much commotion or indication of what was going on, as would be 

 caused by a pack of beagles drawing a gorse cover. Runs or tunnels among the 

 high reeds, like magnified ' meuses ' of hares and rabbits, show that the same paths 

 through the thick jungles are generally made use of." 



The rhinoceros chiefly frequents such portions of these grass jungles as are on 

 swampy ground, and although it is in general a solitary animal, the writer just 

 quoted states that he has known half a dozen individuals roused from a belt of not 

 more than half a mile in length by three hundred or four hundred yards in width. 



