THE RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO 467 



the rhino I had already shot was a full-grown cow, doubtless 

 the calf's mother. As the rhino rose I was struck by their 

 likeness to the picture of the white rhino in Cornwallis 

 Harris's folio of the big game of South Africa seventy years 

 ago. They were totally different in look from the com- 

 mon rhino, seeming to stand higher and to be shorter in 

 proportion to their height, while the hump and the huge, 

 ungainly, square-mouthed head added to the dissimilar- 

 ity. The common rhino is in color a very dark slate gray; 

 these were a rather lighter slate gray; but this was proba- 

 bly a mere individual peculiarity, for the best observers 

 say that they are of the same hue. The muzzle is broad 

 and square, and the upper lip without a vestige of the 

 curved, prehensile development which makes the upper lip 

 of a common rhino look like the hook of a turtle's beak. 

 The stomachs contained nothing but grass; it is a grazing, 

 not a browsing animal. 



There were some white egrets not, as is usually the 

 case with both rhinos and elephants, the cow-heron, but 

 the slender, black-legged, yellow-toed egret on the rhinos, 

 and the bodies and heads of both the cow and calf looked 

 as though they had been splashed with streaks of white- 

 wash. One of the egrets returned after the shooting and 

 perched on the dead body of the calf. 



The heat was intense, and our gun-bearers at once 

 began skinning the animals, lest they should spoil; and 

 that afternoon Cuninghame and Heller came out from 

 camp with tents, food, and water, and Heller cared for 

 the skins on the spot, taking thirty-six hours for the job. 

 The second night he was visited by a party of lions, which 

 were after the rhinoceros meat and came within fifteen 

 feet of the tents. 



On the same night that Heller was visited by the lions 

 we had to fight fire in the main camp. At noon we noticed 

 two fires come toward us, and could soon hear their roar- 

 ing. The tall, thick grass was like tinder; and if we let the 

 fires reach camp we were certain to lose everything we had. 



