64 Rhinoceroses. 



authors contending for as many as five species; 

 but the best authorities are satisfied with two, the 

 black rhinoceros so called, though in reality it is 

 of a dark slate colour and the white or square- 

 mouthed rhinoceros ; both of them are two-horned 

 and smooth-skinned ; but the former, among other 

 points of difference, has a long pointed and prehen- 

 sile upper lip, and feeds on leaves and branches, 

 while the latter has a short upper lip and feeds 

 on grass. The black rhinoceros is found all over 

 the continent the animal in the Zoo was captured 

 in Upper Nubia and is therefore in little present 

 dread of extermination ; but the range of the white 

 rhinoceros is or, perhaps it would be more correct 

 to say, was limited to Southern and South Central 

 Africa, with the unfortunate consequence that it 

 has been practically, if not absolutely, exter- 

 minated. On this subject Mr. Selous made some 

 interesting remarks in an article which appeared 

 in the Field on August 16 last. He says: 



It was within a mile of this spot (near the river Se-whoi- 

 whoi, in Mashunaland) that two years previously (i.e., in 

 1883) I shot two white rhinoceroses (R. simus), the last of 

 their kind that have been killed, and perhaps that ever will 

 be killed, by an Englishman. They were male and female, 

 and I preserved the skin of the head and the skull of the 

 former for the South African Museum in Cape Town, where 

 they now are. I shall never cease to regret that I did not 

 preserve the entire skeleton for our own splendid Museum 

 of Natural History at South Kensington, but when I shot 

 the animal I made sure I should get finer specimens later 

 on in the season. However, one thing and another pre- 

 vented my visiting the one spot of country where I knew 



