RHINOCEROS AS GAME. 251 



A discussion often arises whether the horn of the rhino- 

 ceros is its weapon of offence, one party maintaining that it 

 is never, and the other that it is always so used. My own 

 observations on this point lead me to the conclusion that both 

 are right and wrong at the same time ; that on most occa- 

 sions the powerful incisor teeth are the offensive weapons 

 employed, but that the horn is also sometimes so used, 

 although the ordinary purpose it fulfils is to grub up roots 

 and strip off the bark of trees ; its ordinary worn appear- 

 ance fully proves that it is extensively used. With its 

 formidable incisors this creature will rip open the side of an 

 elephant, using them precisely as the boar does his tusks ; and 

 both in attack and in flight it can display an astonishing 

 degree of speed and activity, in spite of its ugly and clumsy 

 form. 



Inhabiting as these great beasts do only the densest and 

 remotest jungles of grass, reeds, and wild cardamoms, they 

 inflict little injury on man, and are almost harmless; but if 

 they wander away into cultivation and are Avorried and dis- 

 turbed, they become vicious and mischievous, but such in- 

 stances are extremely rare. Some forty or fifty years ago 

 they were to be found on the " churs " of the Koasee in Pur- 

 neah, and at the base of the Rajmehal hills, especially near 

 Sikrigully, but they have deserted those places altogether at 

 the present time. 



Its vast bulk and power apart, the rhinoceros is not an 

 animal to be attractive as game ; nevertheless it is so to some, 

 who prefer its pursuit to that of the tiger. Followed soon 

 after dawn with two or three elephants, and patiently tracked 

 up into its fastnesses till found and slain, it no doubt affords 

 sport; but if put up surrounded by a great line of elephants, 

 and ultimately riddled with bullets and mobbed to death, it 

 does not and cannot show much sport. 



The following may be taken as an exceptionally good 

 example of a day's rhinoceros shooting from the backs of 

 elephants, when the season (end of March), the state of the 

 coverts, and the number put up, were all favourable to sport. 



