AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES 1065 



who but seldom care to molest a lion, never have the slightest hesitation in attack- 

 ing a rhinoceros. The foregoing account is confirmed in all essential particulars by 

 Sir John Willoughby, who suggests, however, that the rhinoceros is apt to be dan- 

 gerous at certain seasons. 



In Southeastern Africa Mr. Drummond states that both species of rhinoceroses 

 generally leave their lairs about four o'clock in the afternoon, or, in districts where 

 there are many human beings, somewhat later. They commence feeding in the 

 direction of their drinking places, to which they travel by regular beaten paths, and 

 arrive at the same somewhere about dark. If the drinking place is a mudhole they 

 frequently refresh themselves with a roll, after drinking their fill. They then start 

 for their favorite thorn feeding grounds, where they remain till daybreak, when 

 they generally again drink. At an earlier or later hour after this, the time being 

 to some extent dependent on the freedom of the district from human intrusion, they 

 retire to their sleeping places, which they reach at any rate before the heat of the 

 day. The lair is always in an extremly sheltered and deeply-shaded spot, and so 

 heavily do they slumber that a practiced stalker could almost touch them with the 

 muzzle of a gun, unless they are awakened by the birds which accompany them in 

 search of the ticks with which they are infested. Mr. Hunter states, however, that 

 in the Kilima-Njaro district rhinoceroses lie out in the open plain during the day. 



The common rhinoceros is met with in Southern Africa generally either solitary 

 or in familj' parties of two or three. In the latter case it is usually a female accom- 

 panied by her calf; but Sir J. Willoughby met a male, female, and half-grown calf 

 together, and as in this instance the horns of the male were much shorter than those 

 of the female, it may be that the longer horns generally belong to the latter sex. 

 Occasionally several full-grown individuals are seen together, Mr. Drummond stat- 

 ing that on one occasion he met with a party of six or seven. Sir J. Willoughby 

 relates that once he shot one of a pair of these rhinoceroses, which was immediately 

 fiercely attacked and rolled over by its companion. When a cow rhinoceros is killed, 

 the calf generally remains by the dead body of its parent, from which it can with 

 difficulty be dragged away. 



Like most other large African animals, the common rhinoceros is 

 rapidly decreasing in numbers from the incessant pursuit to which it 

 is subjected in the southern and eastern portion of the continent. Writing in 1881, 

 Mr. Selous said that it was still fairly common in Southeastern Africa, although it 

 had been nearly exterminated in the regions to the westward. Only a few then 

 remained on the Chobe, while between that river and the Zambezi there were none, 

 and the natives said that there never had been any in that district. Northward of 

 the Zambezi they were, however, again met with, and from thence they doubtless 

 extend through the whole of Central Africa to Abyssinia and the Sudan. In the 

 Kilima-Njaro district Sir J. Willoughby 's party found these rhinoceroses very plen- 

 tiful in 1886, having on one occasion seen as many as sixteen head during a single 

 day's march. 



In Southern Africa the common rhinoceros is hunted either by being followed 

 up when out feeding on the plains, or by the hunter lying in wait at its drinking 

 places. In the Sudan the Hamram Arabs are, however, in the habit of chasing the 



