24 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



In Central Africa he can get his grass diet under cover of the tall rank grasses, 

 which conceal him as effectively as does the bush, and this allows him to move freely 

 in any direction, his weight being sufficient to permit of his easily forcing a passage, 

 while it offers to the sportsman a very serious obstacle. 



There should therefore be two processes at work to change the plain-wandering 

 habits of the East African rhino. The first is, that the rhinos which visit the plains 

 least are those which, in the long run, will not suffer so much at the hands of the 

 sportsman. Thus, of the survivors there will be always a greater proportion left 

 of those which prefer the bush, and as it is the survivors which will propagate their 

 species, the offspring in their turn will be, as time goes on, more and more of the 

 bush-loving type. Again, the most frequent of these latter that visit the plains will 

 again pay toll to the sportsman, and those then left will be still more of the bush- 

 dwelling type. 



The second process at work should be the natural intelligence of the rhino, if, 

 indeed, he possesses such a quality. He should learn by experience that there 

 is danger awaiting him in the plains, and so curtail his visits there to the utmost of 

 his powers. Thus, in time these animals may accustom themselves to do entirely 

 without the food of the plains which now appears to form a considerable part of 

 their diet, and adapt themselves to a pure bush diet. The above is, of course, a 

 hypothetical case to illustrate the changes that are always in progress with animals, 

 tending to accustom them to new environments, food, and habits. 



The probable solution in the case quoted will be that the present plain-dwelling 

 rhino will either be exterminated before he has accomplished any change so lengthy, 

 or he will learn to visit the plains by night alone, and then only in close proximity to 

 the bush. 



In the Athi Plains, with the exception of that portion allotted to the reserve, and 

 in the Rift valley, the rhino is now practically non-extant, although once plentiful. In 

 plains farther afield he still roams, but the sportsman will soon follow him there and 

 make it impossible for him to exist as he does now. Fortunately a large portion of the 

 country is thick bush and grass intermingled, so the rhino inhabiting such strongholds 

 will defy the sportsman for many years to come, for he can there get all the grass 

 he wants under cover of the bush. 



Apart from the persecution by human beings, natural changes are ever at work 

 to which some animals find it impossible to conform and so have to give way before 

 them. Such a one might be an alteration in the character of the vegetation of, 

 comparatively speaking, so rapid a nature that the game had not time to adapt 

 themselves to it. It would then become necessary for them to gradually quit a 



