l8o NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



covered with hair, and a well-haired example of the 

 African elephant is preserved in the Paris Museum. 1 



Although first described in 1817 by Cuvier in his 

 " Regne Animal," the Sumatran rhinoceros had been 

 imperfectly known to Europeans long before that 

 date ; it was, indeed, the Sumatran unicorn of Marco 

 Polo. Bell, a surgeon to the East India Company 

 at Bencoolen, described and figured the "double- 

 horned rhinoceros of Sumatra" in the "Philosophical 

 Transactions" in 1793 ; while Mr. Miller, a friend of 

 Thomas Pennant, had met with it apparently earlier 

 than Bell. It is significant of the shy habits of this 

 "rhinoceros that Miller only saw two specimens during 

 a long residence in the island ; one of these, however, 

 was within a distance of twenty yards. The first 

 museum specimen seems to have been a skull of a 

 young rhinoceros sent to England by Mr. Bell not 

 later than 1793, and said (though this is doubtful) to 

 be the same as that figured in the " Philosophical 

 Transactions;" Sir Stamford Raffles afterwards 

 presented to the museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons the skeletons of three individuals. 



The first living specimen at the Zoological Gardens 

 was not received till August 2nd, 1872, when an 

 example which had been taken in the Sunghi-njong 

 district of Malacca was deposited in the collection by 

 Mr. Jamrach, The beast was afterwards purchased 



1. Renshaw: "On the young of the African elephant:" Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society, 1904. 



