chap. ii. RHINOCEROS. 83 



tree, and so lessen it by a third before I made the attempt ; 

 so, stealing out for a few yards, I made a sudden rush, and 

 succeeded in my object, though it saw me, and probably 

 feeling too sick for a downright charge, trotted out as if to 

 meet me, halting when about half-way. It was now facing 

 me, little more than fifty yards off, and covering the chest I 

 again fired, this time bringing it to the ground, and before 

 I reached the spot it had ceased to struggle. It is notice- 

 able that this shot, so suddenly fatal in its results, was 

 the thud aimed at the chest, and it shows how little trust 

 can be placed on a single bullet to stop or turn one of these 

 animals, unless by accident. 



It is not here necessary to discuss at length the as yet 

 undecided question of the number of distinct species of 

 rhinoceros found in Africa, though I hope to do so at some 

 future time. As far as my experience and inquiries have 

 gone, I believe, in accordance with the recorded opinions 

 of most travellers and sportsmen who have given any 

 attention to the subject, that there are four, — two of the 

 so-called ''white," and two of the "black." This distinc- 

 tion, however, of black and white, seems to me misleading 

 and misapplied, all rhinoceros being of the same colour, 

 namely, a peculiar shade of brown, or, if any difference 

 does exist, it being in R. bicornis possessing a tinge of red. 

 That to different observers, and in different localities, they 

 do appear to be of different colours — Baldwin mentions a 

 blue kind — is undoubted, but, except any slight variation 

 that may locally exist, from the animal, as in Darwin's 

 theory of protective resemblance, conforming to the pre- 

 vailing colour of the district it inhabits, all such cases may 

 be referred to outward circumstances, such as the position 



