XXI 



THE RHINOCEROS 



THE rhinoceros is, with the giraffe, the hippo- 

 potamus, the gerenuk, and the camel, one of 

 Africa's unbelievable animals. Nobody has bet- 

 tered Kipling's description of him in the Just-so 

 Stories: "A horn on his nose, piggy eyes, and few 

 manners." He lives a self-centred life, wrapped up 

 in the porcine contentment that broods within nor 

 looks abroad over the land. When anything external 

 to himself and his food and drink penetrates to his 

 intelligence he makes a flurried fool of himself, rush- 

 ing madly and frantically here and there in a hys- 

 terical effort either to destroy or get away from the 

 cause of disturbance. He is the incarnation of a liv- 

 ing and perpetual Grouch. 



Generally he lives by himself, sometimes with his 

 spouse, more rarely still with a third that is prob- 

 ably a grown-up son or daughter. I personally have 

 never seen more than three in company. Some 

 observers have reported larger bands, or rather col- 

 lections, but, lacking other evidence, I should be 



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