3950 The Zoologist — April, 1874. 



been respectively named R. indicns and R. sondaicus, and it is 

 now supposed that Asia or its islands possess in addition two 

 two-horned species, which have been called R. malayanus and 

 R. lasiotis; the latter is comparatively new, and was exhibited for 

 the first time in the Gardens last year. These two, concerning 

 which much has been written, agree in possessing two horns and a 

 skin without conspicuous flaps or folds ; both species have been 

 exhibited in the Regent's Park, and one, Lasiotis, is still living in 

 apparent health. 



The two one-horned species are now called R. unicornis and 

 R. sondaicus; the former, according to Mr. Blyth, is confined lo 

 the tarai region at the foot of the Himalayas and the valley of the 

 Brahmaputra or province of Assam ; while R. sondaicus is the 

 more common and ordinary s])ecies of the Malayan peninsula. The 

 distinctions between these one-horned species are, in the first place, 

 that Unicornis is much the larger, and secondly, that they inhabit 

 different regions. Mr. Blyth was, beyond question, of all naturalists 

 living at the time he wrote to me,* the best qualified to pronounce 

 an authoritative opinion on the diagnostics of the two. 



I am always reluctant to repeat a passage in the 'Zoologist,' 

 even though, as in this instance, twelve years have intervened, yet 

 as the subject is one of such great interest, and as the opportunity 

 for comparison of the living animal has never before existed, I think 

 I need not hesitate. Mr. Blylh, after quoting various authors and 

 opinions, proceeds thus: — 



" I must frankly confess that I have only quite recently discriminated 

 the two one-liorued species, fancying, as a matter of course, that the 

 numerous skulls of single-horned rhinoceroses in the Society's Museum, 

 from the Bengal Sundarbans, &c., especially the broad-faced type, were 

 necessarily of the hitherto-reputed sole Indian species. F. Cuvier s figure 

 of E. sondaicus is that of a very young animal, and, with those of Horsfield 

 and S. Miiller, convej's the appearance of a more evenly tessellated hide 

 than I remember to have seen in any living continental example. I have, 

 however, been comparing our stuffed Suudarbau example (less than half- 

 grown) with the figure of the adult R. iudicus in the 'Menagerie du 

 Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' and Nvilli the figures of R. sondaicus by 

 S. MiiUer and others, and perceive that it must be referred to the latter 

 and not to the former. The tubercles of the hide ai'e much smaller 

 than in R. iudicus, and a marked difference between the two species, as 



* Jiis letter is dated Calcutta, March 1, 1802, 



