3 o RHINOCEROSES 



neck-shot is the best, aim being taken about a foot behind and a little 

 below the root of the ear ; but the head-shot, 4 or 5 inches in front of 

 the ear towards the eye, is a certainty when the animal is standing 

 still. A mortally wounded rhinoceros will spin round and round in a 

 circle, with its head as a pivot, and the hind-quarters jerking up and 

 down in extraordinary style. Usually, but not always, this action 

 signifies impending death ; but not unfrequently the creatures pull 

 themselves together again, and make a blind forward charge, generally 

 in the direction in which they are facing when they stop revolving. 

 One evening I was watching a track along which a bull and cow 

 rhinoceros with their calf used to travel to water ; the ground was 

 open, and I had made a little shelter of branches about 30 yards from 

 the track. The beasts came just after sundown, the bull loitering 

 behind on the forest-edge, while the cow and calf advanced, the 

 former, when opposite, deliberately leaving the track and walking 

 straight in my direction, till she stood sniffing loudly about 1 2 yards 

 distant. I did not want to shoot her, not only because of the calf, 

 but for fear of scaring the bull ; but as she again advanced, I threw 

 a piece of dead wood which hit her on the nose, when she became 

 furious, snorting loudly, charging again and again at the wood, and 

 tossing it with her horn. Meanwhile the bull came up, and, stopping 

 where the cow had turned, watched her and her calf as they made off 

 towards the water. I fired at his heart, when he at once started 

 waltzing round and squealing loudly, and then suddenly he made a 

 furious dash in my direction. Barely giving me time to scramble out 

 of the way, he passed over the spot where I had been sitting, kicking 

 my water-bottle as he passed ; after which he stood 100 yards farther off 

 when, swaying from side to side, he dropped dead. Of course this was 

 a blind charge, made without any intention of injuring me, but I have 

 been most viciously charged by them. In 1896 I twice bowled over 

 a big bull within a few paces, but he recovered himself, and as my 

 gun-bearer had gone off with my spare rifle, I had to run, closely 

 pursued for a long distance by the rhinoceros, which eventually came 

 to grief against a big boulder. If a wounded rhinoceros detects you 

 (and their sight is very bad) at close quarters, he may be expected to 

 charge, and often does so. It is seldom much use following these 

 animals when wounded, as they keep going for miles until they drop. 

 I have seen a cow, with her fore-leg broken above the knee, travel for 

 over a mile at a pace that my gun-bearer and myself could not keep 

 up with ; while another, also with a fore-leg broken, went over 6 miles, 

 sometimes at a great pace, before she was killed. When charging, 



