THE HOME OF THE RHINO 111 



day he also goes to a favorite wallowing place, 

 where he rolls in the red dirt and emerges from this 

 dirt bath a dull red rhino. In the rhino country 

 dozens of these red dirt rolling places may be 

 found, each one trampled smooth for an area of 

 fifteen or twenty feet in evidence of the great 

 number of times it has been used by one or more 

 rhinos. This dirt bath is a defensive measure 

 against the hordes of ticks that infest the rhino. It 

 is a subject for wonder that the six or eight tick 

 birds do not keep the rhino free of ticks, and it has 

 even been argued by some naturalists that the rhino 

 bird does not eat ticks, but merely uses the rhino as 

 a convenient resting-place. Also perhaps they en- 

 joy the ride. We had planned to get a rhino bird 

 and perform an autopsy on him in order to analyze 

 his contents, but did not do so. 



After the rhino has taken his dirt wallow, and 

 looks fine in his new red coat, he then slowly and 

 painstakingly proceeds to kill time during the rest 

 of the day. If danger threatens he becomes exceed- 

 ingly nervous and excited. His anxiety is quite 

 acute. In vain he tries to locate the danger, rushing 

 one way for a few yards, then the other way, and 

 finally all ways at once. His tail is up and he is 

 snorting like a steam engine. When he rushes 

 toward you in this attitude it looks very much as 

 though he were charging you with the purpose of 

 trampling you to flinders. As a matter of fact, or, 

 rather, opinion, he is merely trying to locate where 

 you are in order that he may run the other way. He 



