THE SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS 179 



the Sumatran rhinoceros exhibits a well-marked fold 

 behind the shoulder ; the hide in the creases round 

 the limbs is much softer than elsewhere, resembling 

 the joints in mediaeval armour. The tail is short 

 and nearly naked, a few hairs only persisting near 

 the tip. General body colour earthy brown ; the 

 hide is besprinkled with quite a number of brown or 

 black bristles, remnant of an ancestral coat of fur. 

 Maximum recorded length of anterior horn 32 inches 

 over the curve. Young animals are hornless. 



This little rhinoceros is remarkable for the amount 

 of hair carried even by the typical race ; but 

 the "hairy-eared" variety the so-called Rhinoceros 

 lasiotis has the ear conches quite heavily fringed, 

 while the body in the lower half is clad in long fine 

 blackish-brown hair showing a purplish cast, and 

 from its delicate appearance recalling the downy coat 

 of a humble bee or a burying beetle ! Along the 

 back, the hair of R. Lasiotis is very scanty and of 

 a pale whitish-straw colour. A rhinoceros hybrid 

 (R. sumatrensis, male x R. lasiotis, female) born at 

 the Calcutta Zoological Gardens many years ago 

 was covered all over with soft woolly hair ; so that one 

 may, on evolutional grounds, assume that formerly 

 rhinoceroses were coated like other mammals, and 

 have lost their coat on assuming more or less aquatic 

 habits. A similar denudation has taken place amongst 

 elephants ; but there is in the National Collec- 

 tion a young calf of the Indian species thickly 



