416 THE COMMON INDIAN RHINOCEROS. 



latter with his tusks ; in either case the blows are directed more 

 or less obliquely upwards, and rapidly repeated."* 



Notwithstanding the thickness and solidity of his hide, the 

 rhinoceros is annoyed by the bites and stings of insects, which 

 abound in his swampy haunts ; and to protect himself from these 

 puny tormentors, and also to defend the skin from the burning 

 heat of the sun, he wallows in the marsh, so as to cover his body 

 with a layer of mud. But he also delights to bathe and swim in 

 the clean water. 



Huge herbivorous animals, like the rhinoceros, elephant, 

 hippopotamus, and others of the present order, must necessarily 

 consume a prodigious quanity of food ; but the very places 

 which their habits lead them to haunt, are those where it can be 

 obtained in the greatest abundance. As they drink large quan- 

 tities of water, require plenty to swim in, and muddy marshes 

 to wallow in, they are compelled to keep to those localities 

 which supply these requisites to their existence and comfort, 

 and which also, from the moisture of the situation, constantly 

 maintain a most luxuriant and rapid vegetation. 



Although the rhinoceros, when adult, is subject to occasional 

 paroxysms of fury, he may, by proper management, be rendered 

 so tame and gentle as to be perfectly tractable. The late Bishop 

 Heber says : " In passing through the city of Baroda, I saw a 

 rhinoceros (presented by Lord Amherst to the Guicar), which 

 is so tame as to be ridden by a mahout, quite as patiently as an 

 elephant. At Lucknow there were five or six large rhinoceroses, 

 quiet and gentle animals, except that one of them has a feud 

 with horses. They seem to propagate in captivity without re- 

 luctance 5 and, I should conceive, might be available to carry 

 burdens as well as the elephant, except that, as their pace is still 

 slower than his, their use could only be applicable to very great 

 weights, and very gentle travelling. They have sometimes had 

 howdahs on them, and were once fastened in a carriage, but 

 only as an experiment, which was never followed up." 



In May 1834, the Zoological Society purchased their fine 

 * Abridged from The Menageries (1840), vol. iii. p. 1517. 



