THE UGLIEST BEAST IN THE WORLD 201 



creature is feeding, as he always does at night, it will call 

 until the clumsy form appears in the first rays of the 

 dawn. The bird also keeps a sharp look-out for any 

 possible danger ahead, for though the rhinoceros's ears 

 are very sharp, his eyes are not, so it is lucky for him 

 that there is somebody at hand who can make up for 

 his deficiencies. In fact, so closely are both bound 

 up together, that when the Bechuanas wish to describe 

 a person they cannot do without, they call him ' my 

 rhinoceros.' 



The black rhinoceros is smaller than the white, and, 

 in spite of his heavy body, can run faster than a horse. 

 He is given to sudden fits of passion, nobody knows what 

 for, and then he will burst out into loud snorts, and dash 

 at the nearest bushes with his horn, sometimes digging 

 for hours at the ground round the roots-, till he has 

 pulled them up and worked off his bad temper both at 

 once. Perhaps his favourite food, the branches of the 

 tree called the 'wait-a-bit' thorn, which grows to the 

 height of twenty feet, may be irritating. Unlike other 

 animals, the two horns of the rhinoceros do not grow 

 into the skull, but are attached to the skin, one behind 

 the other, and when the animal is dead can easily be 

 taken off with a knife. Ehinoceroses are dirty creatures 

 and love to roll in mud, as their skins constantly show. 

 They stand or lie about in the shade all day long, and in 

 the evening steal out somewhere between nine and twelve 

 to the nearest fountain, and after they have drunk their 

 fill, they go for a long walk. It is very funny to see them 

 taking out their young. The little rhinoceros always 

 walks in front, and if the mother gets the scent of an 

 enemy, they both break into a sharp trot, and the mother 

 guides her child by keeping her horn against its side, 

 and pressing it in the direction she wishes to go. In the 

 case of a white rhinoceros, this horn is about three feet 

 long, but that of its black cousin is much smaller. 



Fifty or sixty years ago, rhinoceroses were a great 



