352 UNGULATES, OR HOOFED QUADRUPEDS 



The Rhinoceroses are to be found at the present day in Africa, 

 south of the Sahara Desert, and in India, Java, and Sumatra, 

 where the climate is tropical or sub-tropical. They are represented 

 by several living species, as well as by several extinct forms which 

 ranged in the late Tertiary times, over nearly the whole of Europe 

 and Northern Asia. The principal characters which are to be 

 observed in the Rhinoceros are the large, unwieldy body, sup- 

 ported on short, stout legs, terminating in a large callous pad with 

 hoof-bearing toes, the large long head, the small eyes and ears, 

 and the short tail. All the living species also possess one or two 

 " horns," which are placed in the middle line of the head on and 

 above the nose. These " horns " are really only appendages 

 of the skin, for they are but skin deep, and are composed 

 of a series of fibres matted together, and similar, if not 

 identical, to a mass of hair in which each hair is confluent with 

 those near it. Horns were present also in all the fossil species 

 excepting one, the Aceratherium, the Hornless Rhinoceros of the 

 Miocene Age. The skin is of great thickness in all the species, and 

 is converted into a jointed armour in some of the Asiatic species ; 

 except in the Hairy-Eared Rhinoceros, it is covered scantily with 

 hair. 



There are three well-differentiated species of Asiatic Rhi- 

 noceroses, in all of which the skin is much thrown into folds, and 

 of these the Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros indicus) is the largest 

 form, and has enormous folds of skin at the neck and hanging 

 over the limbs, and one large, backward - sloping horn. The 

 Sumatra species has two horns, and a much thicker coat of hairs, 

 and a variety of this species is the Hairy-Eared Rhinoceros (Rhi- 

 noceros lasiotis of Sclater), from Assam. Only two certainly known 

 species of Rhinoceros are found in Africa namely, the so-called 

 "White" Rhinoceros (Rh. simus) and the " Black" Rhinoceros 

 (Rh. bicornis). The origin of the popular names is difficult 

 to comprehend, since the " white " animal is, if anything, darker 

 than the " black." They are, however, easily distinguishable in 

 other ways, for while Rhinoceros simus has a square upper lip, 

 and consequently crops the herbage on the ground, the Rhinoceros 

 bicornis has a prehensile upper lip which projects beyond the lower, 

 and enables the animal to feed principally upon the leaves and 

 branches of shrubs. Both animals have two horns, and the longest 



