470 UNGULATES. 



This species has a much more extensive distribution than its 

 Distribution. . . . T ,, . .. n . ^ . , 



larger cousin. There is no evidence that it ever occurred in Jreninsular 



India, but it is found in the Bengal sundarbans and portions of Eastern Bengal, 

 while it has been met with in the Sikhim " terai." From the valley of Assam 

 it ranges eastwards through Burma and the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, Java, 

 and Borneo ; its partially fossilised remains occurring in the latter island. 



Mr. Blanford observes that this species " is more an inhabitant 

 of the forest than of grass, and although it is found in the alluvial 

 swamps of the sundarbans, its usual habitat appears to be in hilly countries. It 

 has been observed at considerable elevations both in Burma and Java." Indeed, 

 there is evidence that it probably ascends occasionally to as much as seven thousand 

 feet above the sea-level. This species being a forest-dwelling one, while its molar 

 teeth are of the same pattern as those of the leaf and branch-eating common 

 African rhinoceros, it is pretty certain that its food must be of the same general 

 nature as that of the latter. In disposition the Javan rhinoceros is said to be 

 more gentle than the large Indian species, and it is not unfrequently tamed 

 by the Malays. The horns are never large, and afford but poor trophies to the 

 sportsman. 



Allied siwaiik In the Pliocene rocks of the Siwalik Hills at the foot of the 



Rhinoceroses. Himalaya there occur remains of a single - horned rhinoceros 

 (R. sivalensis), which appears to have been closely allied to the Javan species, of 

 which the original home may accordingly have been India. More remarkable, 

 however, is the occurrence of a fossil rhinoceros in the interior of the Himalaya, 

 at an elevation of about sixteen thousand feet above the sea-level, which likewise 

 seems to have been related to the same species. It may be added that another 

 fossil Indian rhinoceros (R. palceindicus), of which an upper molar teeth is repre- 

 sented in the lower figure on p. 464, appears to have been the forerunner of the 

 living great Indian rhinoceros; its molar teeth approximating to those of the 

 latter, although of a rather less complex structure. 



Sumatran Reverting to the living Asiatic species, the last of all is the 



Rhinoceros. Sumatran rhinoceros (R. suwiatrensis), which is mainly characteristic 

 of the countries to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, occurring but rarely in 

 Assam, although a single example has been obtained from Bhutan. From Assam 

 it ranges through Burma and the Malay Peninsula to Siam, Sumatra, and Borneo ; 

 but it is quite unknown in Java. 



This is the smallest of all the living species of rhinoceros, and 

 Characters. 



differs from the preceding kinds in carrying two horns. It is further 



distinguished by its hairiness, although there is a certain amount of individual 

 variation in this respect. As a rule, the greater part of the body is thinly covered 

 with brown or black hair of considerable length, while there are larger or smaller 

 fringes of hair on the ears and tail. The skin, which is rough and granular, and 

 varies in colour from earthy brown almost to black, has the folds much less 

 developed than in the single-horned species, and only the one behind the shoulders 

 is continuing right across the back. The two horns are placed some distance apart, 

 and when fully developed are thick and massive at the base, but very slender 

 above, the front and longer one sweeping backwards in a graceful curve. In 



