Oct. 24, 1872] 



NATURE 



519 



now reproduced (see Fig. 2\ in order to give an opportu- 

 nity of comparing it with the figure (Fig. i) of the true 

 A', siunatrciisis. 



In July last Mr. William Jamrach received a female 

 two-homed rhinoceros from Singapore, which is said to ! 

 have been captured in a pitfall near Malacca, and placed 

 it on deposit in the Zoological Society's Gardens. On 

 comparing it with the female previously received from 

 Chittagong, it became at once apparent that the two ; 

 animals belonged to distinct, though nearly allied, I 

 species. The Malaccan animal, although undoubtedly ' 

 adult, is much smaller — nearly as much as one third — 

 than that from Chittagong. The fringe of long hairs on 

 the posterior rim of the naked ears, which is very conspi- 

 cuous in the Chittagong animal, is not present in the Malac- 

 can example, in which, however, the whole interior of the 

 ears is filled with short hairs. The whole body of the 

 Malaccan animal is covered with coarse granulations, 

 which are hardly apparent in that from Chittagong. 

 The tail of the Malaccan animal is shorter and nearly 

 naked ; in that from Chittagong it is longer and tufted 

 at the extremity. The head of the former animal is much 

 nan-ower than that of the latter, as is particularly apparent 

 when the distance between the ears of each is examined 



from a front view, and there can be no doubt that the skulls 

 of the two animals, whenever they can be compared, will 

 exhibit marked differences in size and structure. 



Under these circumstances the Council of the Zoo- 

 logical Society thought it would be advisable to add the 

 second animal also to their living collection, and accord- 

 ingly agreed to purchase it of Mr. Jamrach for the sum of 

 600/. Unfortunately it did not live long in the Society's 

 gardens. 



Upon reference to authorities upon the Sumatran Rhi- 

 noceros, which was first described by Mr. William Bell 

 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 

 for 1793, and afterwards by Sir Stamford Raffles in this 

 country and by Cuvier and other writers in France, it be- 

 came evident that the Malaccan animal was the true Rhi- 

 noceros suinatrcnsii of authors. This would be pre- 

 sumably the case, because the Fauna of the Britsh set- 

 tlement of Malacca is nearly identical with that of the 

 adjacent island of Sumatra. The Chittagong animal, its 

 northern representative, is therefore proposed to be called 

 the Hairy-eared Rhinoceros {Rhinoceros lasiotis), from 

 its peculiar ear-fringe of long hairs, which has been 

 already spoken of. How far the Sumatran Rhinoceros 

 extends north along the Malayan peninsula is not yet as- 



ARED Rhinoceros* 



certained, because, although Two-horned Rhinoceroses are 

 known to occur in several intermediate localities, it is un- 

 certain to which of the two allied species they belong. 

 The range of j'v. lasiolis is likewise C|uite a matter of un- 

 certainty at present, the animal being utterly unknown 

 except from the individual in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens. But it is probable that it extends into Assam, 

 where there are reports of the occurrence of a Two-horned 

 species of Rhinoceros. 



Besides the two Rhinoceroses just spoken of, two other 

 specimens of Asiatic Two-horned Rhinoceroses have been 

 imported alive into Europe since the commencement of 

 the present year. One of these was purchased by an 

 agent of one of the American travelling menageries, and 

 exported to New York ; the other is now in the gardens 

 of the Zoological Society of Hamburgh. Both these 

 animals are said to have been received from Singapore, 

 and to resemble exactly the Malaccan animal in London. 

 Of the second a figure and description have been pub- 

 lished in a Hamburgh journal {Vcr Reform), which shows 

 that the animal is certainly the true R. sumatreiisis. 



* It should be stated that this figure is drawn on a smaller scale than that 

 of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, the latter being really the smaller anim.il.— Ed. 



By the addition of these two animals to their Menagerie 

 the Zoological Society have now been able to exhibit side 

 by side specimens of four (out of the six certainly known) 

 hving species of Rhinoceros — a wonderful advance, when 

 we consider that a very few years ago the XrvdX-AxiRlnnoceros 

 unicornis was alone known in Europe in a living state. The 

 two species remaining to be obtained are the Javan Rhino- 

 ceros {Rhinoceros sondaicus), a smaller representative of the 

 One-horned Indian, and the White Rhinoceros of Africa 

 {Rhinoceros simns). It need hardly be added that any 

 correspondents of Nature who may be able to assist in 

 supplying these desiderata will not only be conferring a 

 benefit on science, but will be liberally dealt with by the 

 Council of the Society. P. L. S. 



RECENT FALLS OF METEORITES TN FRANCE 

 AND ITALY 



THE French Academy of Sciences has recently re- 

 ceived several important and interesting accounts 

 of the fall of two or three meteoric masses in France and 

 Italy. On the 23rd of July, about half-past five on a still 

 afternoon, with a perfectly clear sky and a bright sun, a 



