934 The White Rhinoceros in Zululand 
shady tree or patch of bush, and there they will stand for an hour or 
two, with their heads lowered and scarcely any sign of movement, 
save the constant flicking of the long ears, round which the biting 
flies, which worry them incessantly, congregate. ‘They may then move 
off again for a short distance, seldom more than a few yards, or lie 
down on the spot where they have been standing. Sometimes they 
lie down on their sides, at others they sit up with their legs doubled 
under them. They will also rest and sleep when standing, and in 
either position are absurdly easy animals to approach, though 
particularly so when lying down; in fact, with the exception of the 
elephant no other species of wild game can be so easily approached. 
As to choice of place and surroundings, they appear to have none, 
and I have seen them lying during the scorching midday heat on open 
shadeless flats, in low scrubby bush scarcely 2ft. high, with the blazing 
sun pouring down upon them: and I have found them far in the 
darkest recesses of the thorn jungles, into which it is difficult to make 
one’s way. They are never found at rest on rocky kopjes however, 
nor can an instance be recalled of finding them sleeping on high open 
ridges ; the former can be understood, as they are not partial to rough 
ground as are their back congeners, but the high ridges, open to the 
wind and dotted with fine shade trees would seem to be ideal spots in 
which to seek refuge from the ever annoying flies. 
A single animal almost invariably lies down with its head to the 
wind, and if two or three are together, one of them assumes such 
position: during last winter we found four of them one day lying in 
the sun, in long grass, on the sheltered side of a long valley, and right 
on the edge of a thorn jungle. The positions adopted by them were 
most singular, as they lay in the form of a cross, all with tails in and 
heads outwards, and when we put them up they literally tumbled over 
one another in their efforts to get away from danger, the direction of 
which was not at all clear to them. 
In rolling country, such as forms the greater portion of the Game 
Reserve, they seem to always choose the side sheltered from the wind, 
and in the majority of cases in which such a spot is selected for their 
noonday rest, there will be found an extent of dense bush close at hand. 
Tt has always appeared to me that the white rhinoceros of Zululand 
is a more decidedly bush loving animal than it is elsewhere ; some of 
the streams are fringed with stretches of very dense bush, inside of 
which the ground is always moist and the air cool, and while it seems 
quite the correct thing to find buffalo congregating there, and any 
number of bushbuck, it appears altogether incongruous to meet with 
