Insectivorous Birds 97 



this day. It scratches the earth with its right foot, 

 and with two or three blows with its horn, which are 

 given automatically and with the regularity of a pick- 

 axe, unearths roots, which its prehensile lips tear up 

 and its teeth crush ; its ears move with its jaw, and 

 its small tail swings to the right and left, with the 

 object, on the face of it useless, of driving away 

 the flies. On its back, neck, and flanks, are in- 

 sectivorous birds which call out, fly, run, and cling 

 like magpies, in search of the many insects which 

 are on the thick skin of the pachyderm. The presence 

 of these birds is the most annoying thing which 

 can happen to me : if one of them flies away or 

 another arrives, we shall be discovered ; a cry of danger 

 from one will cause all the others to take to flio-ht, 



O ' 



and perhaps also the rhinoceros. So, without further 

 delay, and renouncing the hope of seeing the manner 

 in which it scatters its dung, I raise my Express 

 slowly and aim at the heart. . . . The birds fly away 

 at the report, and with a long neigh, almost a whistle 

 of pain, the rhinoceros mounts the slope of the hill 

 right of the wind at full gallop, without leaving me 

 time to place my second bullet. For some seconds 

 we hear it breaking down the bushes which it en- 

 counters, while the stony ground resounds under its 

 feet. As usual, we follow its track immediately. I 

 see soon that, in spite of all my care, I have missed 

 the heart, the blood which we find being fairly abun- 

 dant, but frothy, which shows that it comes from the 

 lungs. Night comes before we have overtaken our 

 wounded animal. We camp on the very spot where 



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