DOUBLE-HORNED RHINOCEROS. 171 



Curious defence against the stings of flies. 



ture : but it is not for drinking alone that he fre- 

 quents wet and marshy places : large, fierce, and 

 strong as he is, he must submit to prepare him* 

 self against the weakest of his adversaries. The, 

 great consumption he constantly makes of foo4 

 and water, necessarily confines him to certain, 

 limited spaces ; for it is not every place that can 

 maintain him; he cannot emigrate or seek hi% 

 defence among the sands of Arabia." 



The double-horned rhinoceros has a formida- 

 ble adversary in a fly, bred in the black earth of 

 the marshes ; and this insect persecutes him sq 

 unremittingly, that it must eventually subdue 

 Jbim, were it not for a stratagem which he prao 

 tises for his preservation. In the night when th^ 

 fly is at rest, the rhinoceros chuses. a. conve-e 

 jiient place, and there rolling in the mud, clothes 

 himself with a kind of case, which defends him; 

 against his adversary the following day. The 

 wrinkles and plaits of his skin serve to keep 

 this plaster firm upon him, all but about his 

 hips, shoulders, and legs, where it cracks and, 

 falls off, by motion, #nd leaves him exposed in 

 those parts. The itching and pain which follow,, 

 occasion him to rub himself in those parts against 

 the roughest trees; and this is probably one cause 

 of the numerous pustules or tubercles that are 

 perceivable upon his skin. 



The pleasure he receives from this employ- 

 ment, and the darkness of the night, deprive him 

 ef his u$ual vigilance and a^ntjon; and the 



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