1 82 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



sula, and Siam to Sumatra and Borneo, the present 

 species is a dweller in dense forest, hiding hermit-like 

 in the depths of the hill jungles, and climbing the 

 mountains as far as 4,000 feet. Deep dark virgin 

 forest, here and there bright with scarlet fruit ; 

 tangles of rattan palm and belts of banana trees ; 

 glowing masses of flowering ixoras and fields of 

 mountain bracken these adorn the home of the 

 Sumatran rhinoceros. Like the hippopotamus, the 

 rhinoceros constantly uses the same track ; it sleeps 

 every day in the same bedroom or "rhinoceros house," 

 a sheltered lair in the depth of the thicket. 



The Sumatran rhinoceros is fond of bathing, and 

 wallows like a pig ; sometimes it immerses the 

 whole body in the mud, so that only a part of the 

 head is visible. 1 Most active early in the morning 

 and in the evening, it retires in the middle of the 

 day- for a prolonged siesta. Leaves of the jack 

 fruit are a favourite food of the Asiatic rhinoceroses, 

 and they also feed freely on those of the yalher fig 

 (Ficus glomeratus) ; they ravage crops which may 

 be growing in the neighbourhood, the Javan species 

 (R. Sondaicus} attacking coffee and pepper plantations. 

 In spite of their size and strength these animals are 

 not very brave, and a single wild dog has been 

 known to put one to flight. 



1. A two-horned rhinoceros is said to have been seen swimming in the 

 sea in the Mergui Archipelago; similarly it is said that Flacourt, the 

 discoverer of the African black rhinoceros, first saw one in the "Bay of 

 Saldaghne " near the Cape. 



