164 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



follow, as the soil is soft and sandy. Unlike elephants, they 

 do not form herds, and it is usual to find them singly or in 

 couples a male and female and sometimes such a pair 

 will be accompanied by a calf. 



Why Rhinoceros bicornis should be termed the black 

 rhino I do not know, for I carefully examined a white and 

 black specimen in the Cape Town museum, and I failed to 

 notice that there was much difference in their colour ; and, 

 moreover, neither follow their names, as they both 

 appeared to be a slaty grey colour. 



The black rhino walks with his head held high, and I 

 have read that the white variety holds his head low, and 

 close to the ground. 



The latter is a much larger and heavier beast, and 

 measures much more at the shoulder, and he also grows 

 much larger horns. 



In the country I write of a 2oin. front horn is quite a 

 good one, but in British East Africa the black rhino grows 

 much larger horns than this. 



They are very easily killed with modern rifles, and any 

 small bore high-velocity rifle will account for a rhino quite 

 easily. In fact, one only realises the power of such rifles 

 when he sees how easy it is to kill elephants and rhinos 

 with them, and it seems to me that it requires a really big 

 and heavy-boned animal to fully bring out the power of 

 such weapons. 



Rhino flesh is often full of maggots, and the beasts 

 themselves are usually covered with plastered mud, as, like 

 pigs, they delight to wallow in muddy holes. Elephants 

 have the same liking for mud holes in very hot weather, and 

 I have seen a deep hole filled with mud and water which 

 was just like a huge bath. I once followed a bull elephant 

 that had just had such a bath, and he left mud on the trees 

 as he passed, and it was possible to get a good idea of his 

 height by these marks. 



Rhino will often be found near elephants, so I suppose 

 they leave each other alone ; although they never intermix 

 as antelopes of different species often do. The natives do 



