NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



When warned of danger by its bird friends, the 

 Rhino charges off more or less blindly, and as likely 

 as not right in the face of the stalker, who usually 

 imagines he has been observed by it, and that the 

 charge is a deliberate one. 



Major Stevenson-Hamilton relates an instance of 

 a gentleman who obtained a permit to shoot one 

 Rhino. The victim happened to be a cow ; and its 

 calf, infuriated at the death of the mother, charged 

 down upon him. He secured a temporary sanctuary 

 on top of a termite heap, and the youngster, which 

 was as big as a donkey, ran to and fro from its 

 dead mother to the heap, squealing with both rage 

 and grief. Not having a permit to kill more than 

 one Rhino, he hesitated to shoot, and it was only 

 after both he and the party had been held up for two 

 hours that he shot it through a non-vital, fleshy 

 part. For some time afterwards it continued to 

 threaten him, but eventually retreated, much to the 

 relief of the party. 



In former days, when this species of Rhino was 

 plentiful, it was a constant source of annoyance to 

 travellers, by suddenly jumping up and charging 

 down upon them. The charge of so huge and clumsy 

 an animal into the midst of a number of native 

 carriers, and a team of donkeys or oxen, was most 

 disconcerting and dangerous, for one stroke of the 

 great horn usually results in death for man or beast. 



The so-called horn of all Rhinoceroses is a collec- 

 tion of closely-packed fibres, growing from the skin ; 

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