KHINOCEROSES. 



(Oct. 18, 1890.) 



RHINOCEROSES are now so common in menageries 

 and so many have been seen at the Zoo that it is 

 difficult to realise that until the early years of this 

 century only about half a dozen of these animals 

 had been seen in Europe since the time of the 

 I i oman Empire. Yet so it was, and consequently 

 the accounts of the earlier authors teem with the 

 most marvellous stories, not only of the appear- 

 ance, but also of the manners, of these creatures. 

 But, if their stories were marvellous, their pictures 

 were even more wonderful, most of them repre- 

 senting an impossible creature clothed in what 

 was apparently intended for a highly ornamented 

 suit of armour. The first of these wonderful draw- 

 ings is said to have been made in Lisbon in the 

 year 1513 from a rhinoceros sent from India to 

 Emmanuel, King of Portugal, and was engraved 

 at Niirnberg by Albert Diirer ; and here we may 

 add that the King, after trying all sorts of experi- 

 ments to prove the ferocity of this rhinoceros, sent 

 the unfortunate animal by sea as a present to the 

 Pope ; but " in an access of fury it sunk the vessel 



