THE SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS 187 



about three days after the capture, but unfortunately 

 an attempt to take him was unsuccessful. 



A hybrid between the hairy-eared form and the 

 typical Sumatran race was afterwards bred in the 

 Calcutta collection. The little animal was born 

 early in the morning of January 30, 1889, and at 

 first resembled a lump of animated clay. It got up 

 after an hour and a half, and made a plucky attempt 

 to walk, though it could not go three yards without 

 stumbling. At one o'clock the mother was given 

 some oatmeal gruel, and the infant a quart of cow's 

 milk ; at six o'clock in the evening, and again at ten 

 o'clock the calf received some more cow's milk. 

 During the night the mother began to suckle it, so 

 that it became active and playful. The skin of this 

 interesting little animal was soft pinky brown 

 (contrasting with the dusky grey of the young 

 pure-bred sumatrensis) and became darker with age; 

 its body was covered all over with soft woolly hair. 



The Sumatran and hairy-eared rhinoceroses at 

 Calcutta were found to be much fonder of water 

 than the Indian and Javan specimens in the same 

 collection. The former liked to lie in muddy water, 

 and were constantly digging new holes or under- 

 mining the banks of their tank ; the anterior horn 

 was used as a pickaxe to detach the earth, which 

 was then scraped backwards with the forefeet and 

 beaten down into soft ooze. Two Sumatran 

 rhinoceroses in the Gardens fought so continually 



