BLACK RHINOCEROS 



33 



hours they commonly sleep, sometimes under a tree, at other times in 

 the open. Where much harassed by natives they are, however, seldom 

 or never seen abroad by daylight, hiding themselves in the densest 

 thickets, so that only the spoor made during their nightly rambles 

 betrays the fact of their presence. 



" Although the black rhinoceros does not eat grass, in open 

 country its food consists to a great extent of plants that grow among 

 the grass on the plains, and it may thus be seen apparently grazing. 

 During periods of 

 drought these animals 

 wander far over the 

 uplands in search of 

 food, coming down 

 during the night to 

 slake their thirst at 

 some pool left in the 

 bed of a watercourse 

 many miles distant, 

 to which their well- 

 worn paths converge. 

 As has often been 

 pointed out, they are 

 intensely stupid, and 

 marvellously blind, so 

 that they may often 

 be approached even 

 on a bare plain with 



little trouble, Up-wind. FIG. u. Head of Black Rhinoceros shot to the east of Mount 

 It is this Stupidity and Ruta1 ' photographed by Lord Delamere. 



blindness which make 



them a source of danger to passing caravans ; for, should the wind be 

 blowing from them, when unaccompanied by rhinoceros -birds, they 

 frequently remain unconscious of the approach of a caravan until it is 

 close to them, when, being suddenly confronted with a long line of 

 porters, they will sometimes charge straight through, apparently under 

 the impression that there is no other way of escape. On the other 

 hand, they are very keen-scented, and if the wind be blowing in their 

 direction they start off at a quick trot as soon as the taint reaches 

 them. It is only when wounded that a rhinoceros gallops. 



" As the result of my experience, under ordinary circumstances 

 and with proper caution, there is not very much risk in shooting 



I) 



