624 



NA TURA L HIS TOR Y. 



still a rhinoceros is an antagonist not to be despised. When brought to 

 bay he will charge, trying to impale horse or man upon the long, sharp 

 horns. The natives eat the flesh, while from the hide they make the 

 shields they use in their wars, and the horns are manufactured into sword- 

 hilts. Hunting them for the mere sake of killing them does not seem so 



Fig. 405. — Rhinoceros {Atelodva bicornis). 



praiseworthy an act as some travelers appear to think, and their details 

 of the struggles, charges, and final death, with perchance the slaughter of 

 a horse or two, possess but a morbid interest. 



In the horses and their allies the reduction of toes reaches its extreme; 

 for in these forms the whole weight is borne on the tips of the middle toes 

 of each foot. Of course the most important of all is the domestic horse, 



