THE COMMON INDIAN RHINOCEROS. 415 



lent life : sluggish in his habitual movements, he wanders along 

 with a heavy measured step, carrying his huge head low, so 

 that his nose almost touches the ground, and stopping at inter- 

 vals to uproot with his horn some favourite food, or in playful 

 wantonness to plough up the ground, throwing the mud and 

 stones behind him. As he passes through the tangled coverts, 

 every obstacle gives way before his strength, and his track is 

 said to be often marked by a line of devastation in his rear. 

 Inoffensive, but fearless, he is, when roused, a most tremendous 

 antagonist - } and such is the keenness of his sense of smell and 

 hearing, that except by very cautiously approaching him against 

 the direction of the wind, it is almost impossible to take him 

 by surprise. On being thus disturbed, he usually endeavours 

 to retreat in peace, though instances are on record in which he 

 has furiously advanced to the attack. ' A few years ago,' says 

 the translator of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, ' a party of Europeans, 

 with their native attendants and elephants, went out to hunt 

 rhinoceroses, and met with a herd of seven, led as it seemed 

 by one larger and stronger than the rest. When the large 

 rhinoceros charged the hunters, the leading elephants instead 

 of using their tusks, which in ordinary cases they are ready 

 enough to do, wheeled round and received the blow of the 

 rhinoceros's horn upon their posteriors. The blow brought 

 them immediately to the ground with their riders j and as soon 

 as they had risen the brute was again ready, and again brought 

 them down ; and in this manner did the contest continue until 

 four out of the seven were killed, when the rest made good their 

 retreat.' We are not to infer from this account that there is 

 a natural antipathy between the elephant and the rhinoceros, 

 though Pliny asserts such to be the case, an error repeated by 

 other writers. The fact is, that there are seasons in which the 

 rhinoceros becomes excessively furious ; and upon any animal 

 large enough to attract his notice, which intrudes within the 

 precincts of his haunt, he rushes with impetuous violence. The 

 rhinoceros's mode of attack is very similar to that of the wild 

 boar, except that the former strikes with his horn, and the 



