THE SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS. 



" Went with Sir William Godolphin to see the rhinoceros 

 or unicorn, being the first, I suppose, that was ever brought 

 to England. She belonged to some East India merchants, 

 and was sold (as I remember) for above ^"2,000." 



John Evelyn, A.D. 1684. 



The investigation of a jungle fauna, like that of 

 the deep sea, presents specal difficulties, for Nature 

 yields up her secrets with but niggard hand. The 

 Malayan forest animals are perhaps as little known 

 as any, although specimens of them, both great and 

 small, won at great expenditure of time and money 

 and health, now enrich our museums. Cynogale 

 and hemigale, babirusa and linsang, tarsier and tapir 

 are cases in point ; so also are the Javan and 

 Sumatran rhinoceroses of South- Eastern Asia. 



The Sumatran rhinoceros {Rhinoceros sumatrensis] 

 budak tapa (or recluse) of the Malays kyan of the 

 Burmese stands about 4^ feet at the shoulder and 

 tapes about 8 feet from the tip of the snout to the 

 root of the tail, being the smallest of living rhino- 

 ceroses. The head is elongated, with a pointed upper 

 lip; the eyes are small, and the ears of moderate size. 

 This animal carries two horns, the front one being 

 occasionally strongly curved ; the hinder horn is 

 a mere fragment. Rough and granulated, the skin of 



