1876.] HON. W. DRUMMOND ON AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES. Ill 



R. keitloa is another well-recognized species ; but for the sake of 

 comparison with those killed in other parts of Africa I will mention 

 the average measurements I have noted, and the peculiarities of 

 structure. 



Length from nose to base of tail, about 



Height at the shoulder about 



Circumference about 



Average length of the anterior horn. . 

 Average length of the posterior horn. . 



In some few cases the posterior horn is a trifle the longer, and in 

 others 4 or 5 inches the shorter. The head is of the same type as 

 that of R. bicornis major and R. bicornis minor ; and the peculiar 

 snout and long prehensile upper lip which characterizes these three 

 species is more marked than in the former, while less so than in the 

 latter. Its food is chiefly, if not solely, the young and tender shoots 

 of various kinds of thorns. In disposition it is decidedly morose and 

 ill-tempered ; but it seldom charges without provocation. Its habitat 

 is a very extended one, though it does not seem to be plentiful any- 

 where, more than two or three being seldom seen together, and then 

 only at long intervals. I have found it from the Black Umfolosi river 

 in Zululand up to the Limpopo, and the black crosses seen on the map 

 now before us in the country south of the Zambesi show the appro- 

 ximate spots where, to my knowledge, it has been killed. Andersson 

 seems to have met with it to the west ; and it most undoubtedly exists 

 in Abyssinia, specimens which I have examined from that country 

 being now in the British Museum, and a very perfect one in the 

 possession of Mr. Gerrard ; while from the measurements of a pair 

 of horns from a Rhinoceros cow killed by Sir Samuel Baker (the 

 front horn 23 inches, the back l?i inches) I should be inclined to 

 believe that it also must have been R. keitloa, 17 '\ inches being an 

 extremely unusual length for the posterior horn of any other species. 

 I will next speak of R. oswelli, about which, however, much 

 remains to be learned. In conformation, habits, disposition, and 

 food it in no way differs from R. simus, except in its horns. This 

 singularity, as is well known, consists in the front horn, which is 

 straight, and even in comparison with R. simus unusually long, 

 pointing forward at an acute angle instead of standing erect from the 

 snout, though this angle is very various in different animals, some 

 possessing the peculiarity in the most modified form, while in others 

 it is very marked. The red marks on the map show where I know 

 it to have been met with or killed ; and I have found specimens 

 high up on the east coast, though not exhibiting their characteristic 

 to any great degree. It is, however, by far the most local of any of 

 the species, so much so as to induce me to believe that it is merely 

 local variety, some bull or cow (probably the former) having either 

 from injury or accident of birth possessed a horn similar to that 

 which we now find among its descendants. The fact of the pecu- 

 liarity varying so greatly in different individuals is, it seems to me, 



