174 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



her calf and advanced toward him in distinctly bellicose 

 style; then she recognized him, her calf trotted up, and 

 the three animals stood together, tossing their heads, and 

 evidently trying to make out what was near them. But 

 we were down wind, and they do not see well, with their 

 little twinkling pig's eyes. We were anxious not to be 

 charged by the cow and calf, as her horn was very poor, and 

 it would have been unpleasant to be obliged to shoot her. 

 and so we drew off. 



Next day, when Kermit and I were out alone with our 

 gun-bearers we saw another rhino, a bull, with a stubby 

 horn. This rhino, like the others of the neighborhood, was 

 enjoying his noonday rest in the open, miles from cover; 

 "Look at him," said Kermit, "standing there in the middle 

 of the African plain, deep in prehistoric thought/' Indeed 

 the rhinoceros does seem like a survival from the elder 

 world that has vanished; he was in place in the pliocene; 

 he would not have been out of place in the miocene; but 

 nowadays he can only exist at all in regions that have lagged 

 behind, while the rest of the world, for good or for evil, has 

 gone forward. Like other beasts rhinos differ in habits in 

 different places. This prehensile-lipped species is every- 

 where a browser, feeding on the twigs and leaves of the 

 bushes and low trees; but in their stomachs I have found 

 long grass stems mixed with the twig tips and leaves of 

 stunted bush. In some regions they live entirely in rather 

 thick bush; whereas on the plains over which we were 

 hunting the animals haunted the open by preference, feed- 

 ing through thin bush, where they were visible miles away, 

 and usually taking their rest, either standing or lying, out 

 on the absolutely bare plains. They drank at the small 



