184 



The Living Animals of the World 



But little appears to be known of the habits of this species of rhinoceros. Although it is 

 found in the swampy grass-covered plains of the Sunderbunds, its more usual habitat seems 

 to be hilly forest-covered country, and both in Burma and Java it ascends to a height of 

 several thousand feet above sea-level. It feeds principally upon leaves and the young shoots 

 of trees and bushes. In disposition it is timid and inoffensive. Only the male carries a horn, 

 which, being very short, is a very poor trophy for a sportsman. 



The third Asiatic species of rhinoceros, known as the SUMATRAN, is the smallest of all 

 living rhinoceroses. This species carries two horns, and its skin, which is very rough, is usually 

 thinly covered with hair of a dark brown colour and of considerable length. The folds in the 

 skin of the Sumatran rhinoceros are not nearly so well developed as in its single-horned 

 relatives, and the one behind the shoulders is alone continued over the back. Although 

 furnished- with tusks in the lower jaw, the small pair of incisor teeth, which in the other 

 two Asiatic rhinoceroses are always present in front of these tusks, are wanting in the 

 Sumatran species. 



The Sumatran rhinoceros is rare in Assam, but is found in Burma and the Malay 

 Peninsula, as well as in Siam, Sumatra, and Borneo. The two horns of this species are placed 



at some distance apart. Although 

 they are as a rule very short, the 

 front horn occasionally grows to a 

 considerable length, sweeping back- 

 wards in a graceful curve. 



In height adult males of the 

 Sumatran species stand on the average 

 from 4 feet to 4| feet at the shoulder, 

 and females sometimes not more than 

 3 feet 8 inches. 



Like the Javan rhinoceros, the 

 Sumatran species is by preference 

 an inhabitant of hilly, forest>covered 

 country, and browses on the leaves 

 and shoots of trees and bushes. It 

 is a timid and inoffensive animal, 

 soon becoming tame in captivity. Its 

 flesh is said to be much appreciated 

 by the Dyaks of Borneo; and as its 



horns are of value for export to China, where they are used for medicinal purposes, it has 

 of late years very much decreased in numbers in the province of Sarawak, but is more 

 plentiful in Central and North Borneo. Living as it does in dense jungle, it is an animal 

 which is seldom seen by European sportsmen, and its habits in a wild state have never been 

 yet very closely studied. 



Turning to the two species of rhinoceros which inhabit the continent of Africa, both are 

 double-horned, and neither furnished with incisor teeth, the nasal bones being thick, rounded, 

 and truncated in front. Both, too, are smooth- skinned and entirely hairless, except on the edge 

 of the ears and extremity of the tail, which are fringed or tufted. 



Of the two African species, the WHITE or SQUARE-MOUTHED KHINOCEROS is the larger and 

 the rarer. Until quite recently the range of this huge ungainly-looking animal, the biggest 

 of all terrestrial mammals after the elephant, was supposed to be entirely confined to the 

 southern portions of the African Continent; for although from time to time horns had found 

 their way to Zanzibar which seemed referable to the square-mouthed rhinoceros, the fact of 

 the existence of the white rhinoceros in any part of Africa north of the Zambesi remained 

 in doubt until a female was shot in the year 1900, in the neighbourhood of Lado, on the 

 Upper Nile, by Captain A. St. II. Gibbons, who brought its skin, skull, and horns to England. 



Photo by York <!; Son] 



GREAT INDIAN RHINOCEROS. 

 This species inhabits the grass jungles of North-eastern India. 



[Notting Hill, 



