184 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



deed, it is only in South and East Africa that 

 it has horns of even that length. The second 

 horn in both kinds is always smaller and grows 

 straight, whereas the other is curved, usually 

 backward, though in some specimens it points 

 forward. No doubt the animal knows how to 

 turn it to account, whichever way it grows, 

 and, as has been mentioned above, the African 

 rhinoceros uses the horn for tossing its enemy, 

 whereas the Indian fights chiefly with its teeth. 

 The rare " white" rhinoceros is the taller 

 and heavier beast of the two, standing a little 

 over 6 ft. at the shoulder, whereas the largest 

 known black rhinoceros would be several 

 inches shorter. The most conspicuous differ- 

 ence between the two, however, is in neither 

 size nor colouring, but in the shape of the 

 upper lip, a sure clue to the food preferred by 

 the animal. In the black, the upper lip over- 

 hangs the lower like a finger. In other words, 

 the animal is " prehensile-lipped, " or able to 

 pick leaves off bushes, browsing on acacia and 

 other low trees within its reach. Burchell's 

 rhinoceros, on the other hand, has a square 

 mouth and is a grazing animal, living out on 

 the open plains, and not in the forests which 

 are the home of the other. Its day is done. 

 Its old haunts know it no more, and even 

 Selous, greatest of living hunters, would be 

 puzzled to find one to-day in the length and 



