IV 



RHINOCEROS-HUNTING 



THERE seems to be a prevalent idea that the African 

 rhinoceros is at the pre ent time a rare and rapidly dis- 

 appearing mammal. While this is essentially true of the so- 

 called white or square-lipped rhinoceros (R. simus), which was 

 formerly abundant but is now almost extinct in South Africa, 

 the black two-homed rhinoceros {R. bicornis) still exists in 

 comparatively large numbers in the eastern portion of The 

 Dark Continent. This interesting beast is still more or less 

 plentiful in suitable localities over the most of British East 

 Africa. During a three and a half months' shooting-trip from 

 Nairobi, which is three hundred miles inland from the east 

 coast, my friend and I estimated that we saw something over 

 eighty rhinoceroses apiece. And this was a small number com- 

 pared with what other sportsmen and travellers have seen in 

 portions of the Protectorate, where these beasts are more 

 abundant. From reports this species of rhinoceros is also 

 common in German East Africa, Somaliland, Abyssinia, the 

 Sudan, and parts of Uganda. Although its range formerly 

 extended to the south as far as Cape Colony, it is much less 

 plentiful in the southern portion of Africa, where its numbers 

 have been greatly reduced by English sportsmen, Boer hunters, 

 and armed natives. 



This rhinoceros is a solitary, morose beast, never being seen 

 in larger than family parties of bull, cow, and calf. At the 

 approach of civilization it retires to the wilder and more remote 



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