CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 11. PACHYDERM AT A. 637 



drinking-cups, to the latter of which the eastern nations attribute the power of indicating the 

 presence of poison in any fluid that may be put into them. Little more than twenty years ago 

 only four living species belonging to this family were known, but the number has since been in- 

 creased to seven, and Dr. Gray has very recently described the horns of what appear to be two 

 other species, distinct from any of those previously known. 



Genus RHINOCEROS : Rhinoceros. — Of this, the only genus, there are several species. The 

 most celebrated is the Indian Rhinoceros, R. unicornis of Linnaeus, R. Indicus of F. Cuvier. Of 

 this the head and neck are rather short; the eye is small and lateral, and the animal cannot see 

 in front, more particularly when the horn is full-grown, as it stands in the way of vision. The 

 body is about nine feet long and five feet high ; in its structure it is peculiarly massive, heavy, 

 and hog-like, and often weighs six thousand pounds. It has a single horn from two to three 

 feet long. The skin is of an earth-color, hard and thick, and often turns a musket bullet; its sur- 

 face is rough and mammillated, especially on the croup and down the fore-shoulders; its folds 

 are very distinct, and resemble plate armor. It is almost wholly destitute of hair, except at the 

 tip of the tail and on the margins of the ears. This species inhabits Hindostan, Siam, and Cochin 

 China; shady and marshy places in the neighborhood of rivers being its chosen haunts. It is 

 fond of wallowing in the mire somewhat in the manner of hogs. Its food consists of grass and 

 the branches of trees. The flesh is not unpalatable. 



This powerful animal, living amid the tall, rank vegetation of the jungles of India, and especi- 

 ally along the marshy borders of the Ganges, the Burrampooter, and other great rivers, can only 

 be hunted with the aid of elephants. They are usually found in small herds of four to six, led on 

 by the most powerful among the troop. Their first instinct is to fly from such an attack, but if 

 hard pressed they rush upon the elephants and seek to thrust the nose beneath the belly and rip 

 them up by a fierce toss of the horn. The elephants, however, avoid this movement, and turning 

 the back, receive the shock in that quarter, usually with little damage. Often, however, the im- 

 petus of the rhinoceros precipitates the elephant in a headlong plunge to the ground, and finding 

 this to succeed, he will repeat the operation several times in succession. Formerly it was found 

 that the hide of the rhinoceros was impenetrable to ordinary musket-balls ; they are now easily 

 brought down by larger and harder bullets. 



The Indian Rhinoceros is that usually brought to Europe and America, and which we are 

 familiar with in 1 he menageries; it is also that which is best known in history. The Romans 

 became acquainted with it toward the close of the republic, and Pompey introduced it into the 

 circus. It also figured in the triumphal procession of Augustus with Cleopatra — the beautiful 

 Queen of Egypt and the hoggish rhinoceros combining to swell the pomp of the victor! Repre- 

 sentations of this animal also appear on various coins of this period, and in the palestrian mo- 

 saics of Rome. In the fanciful tales of the Arabian Nights a curious passage tells us that the 

 rhinoceros fought with the elephant, pierced his belly with his horn, and carried him off on his 

 head] but the fat and the blood filled his eyes and rendered him entirely blind, so that' he fell 

 prostrate on the earth. In this state of things a huge Roc came and carried them both off to his 

 young ones in his prodigious talons. It is curious to trace the threads of truth even in the wild- 

 est popular fiction : the manner of fighting here imputed to the rhinoceros is according to nature, 

 and as to the Roc — a bird as hie: as a village windmill — late discoveries have shown the bones of 

 extinct species twelve or fourteen feet high, the traditions of which may well have been wrought 

 into this gigantic feathered monster. 



The Javan Rhinoceros, R. Javanus, formerly confounded with the preceding, greatly resem- 

 bles it, and has but one horn ; it is, however, somewhat smaller, rather more hairy, has a smaller 

 head, with a more sharpened muzzle, and the flexible lip, especially, being more attenuated. The 

 folds are less prominent, and around the neck are nearly obliterated ; the tubercles of the skin 

 are smaller and more angular. It is called Warak by the Javanese and Badak by the Malays. 

 It is a native of Java. 



The Sumatran Rhinoceros, R. Sumatrensis, is even somewhat smaller than the preceding ; 

 it has two horns, the first long and bent backward, the second, placed a little forward of the eyes, 

 smooth and pyramidal. The skin is less rough than in the preceding species, and the folds less 



