RHINOCEROSES. ,<., 



This rhinoceros Is exclusively confined to India, and at 1 1 1<- 



DlBtrlbution. ' . 



present day, according to Mr. Dianford, is almost restricted to the 

 i! plain, being rarely, if ever, bund to the westward of the Tista Raver. 

 Twenty or thirty years ago, it was, however, still common In the so called 

 eountry at the foot of the Sikhim Himalaya, while some yean earlier it frequented 

 the sub-Himalayan districts of Nipal, and ranged as far west as Rohilcund; while 

 the writer last quoted believes that, about the year I860, it. also occurred In the 

 grass-jungles of the Ganges valley at the north end of the Rahmahal IMIIh in 

 Bengal, In the early part of the sixteenth century it tanged over the Punjab as Car 

 westwards as Peshawur; and since its fossilised remains are found in the North 

 Provinces, the Narbada valley, and Madras it. may be inferred that t ! i< ■ 



Indian rhinoceros formerly ranged over the greater part of Peninsular India, in 

 localities suited to its habits. 



The Indian rhinoceros is a denizen of the great irrass-junirles that 

 Habits. . K 



cover Mich a large portion of the plain Of India., and from t.hi.s 



circumstance, coupled with the general resemblance of its molar teeth to thou oi 

 the Airican Burchell's rhinoceros, which is known to he a grass-eater, it. nay he 

 assumed that its food is c.liiefly grass. Regarding the density and height of these 

 ■ ... < leneral Kinloch writes that, " year after year, in the short space of two or 

 three months, these giant grasses shoot, up to a beightof from twenty to thirty feet, 

 forming, with the wild cardamum, various other broad leaved plants, and numerous 

 creepe, ., tangled cover which shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 

 buffalo, as effectually as a Held of standing corn affords concealment to the 

 partridge or the quail I have seen a line of about, fifteen elephants beating a 



Strip Of reeds not more, than tWO hundred yards in width, and I COUld hardly 



see the grass shake. There was not. as much commotion or indication of what 



was ^'oin^ on, as would be caused by a pact of beagles drawing a. gone cover. 



or tunnels among tie. high reeds, like magnified menses' of hares and 



rabbits, show that the same paths through the i, hick jungle are generally made 



of 



The rhinoceros chiefly frequents such portions of these grans-jungles as art on 



swampy ground ; and although it, is in general a solitary animal, the writer ju I 



quoted tates that he has known half a dozen individuals roused from a belt of not 



more than half a mile in length by three hundred or four hundred yards in width 



tapirs, the Indian rhinoceros is fond of a mud bath. Although then 



many stories extant, as l.o its ferocity, and more especially its enmity to lie 



elephant, it, appears thai, this animal is generally quiet and harmless. Even when 

 wounded according to Mi-. Blanford, it is but seldom that, it, charges home: but 

 when it does attach the sharp lower tusks are used much after the fame manner 



of a wild boar. The. only sound that this rhinoceros utters is a. peculiai 



grunt, which i d at, frequent intervals during excitement. The usual gait 



of this rhinoceros is a long swinging trot, hut when disturbed, it can breali into an 



awkward but very rapid gallop. Only a single Calf i I produced at ,. bulb, but 



then- i , ,ome uncertainty as to the length of the period of get taf ion an old n i iter 

 stating that it is nine months, while a more recent authority affirms that it i> 

 nearly or quite double as long. Since rhino have 



