by PF. Vaughan-Kirby. 235 
white rhinoceroses in such places. Nevertheless these animals pass a 
very great deal of their time in these localities, and very often lie up 
for the day in them. 
There are large tracts in the Mfolozi Game Reserve covered with a 
particularly wicked form of vegetation known to the natives as 
“ihlehle” thorn : it is a species of cactus, armed with cruel spikes, 
and as the growth is of a very brittle nature, large pieces are con- 
stantly knocked off by passing game, and by those which actually feed 
upon it, such as kudu, bushbuck, baboons, ete. Thus the narrow game- 
paths through these jungles become strewn with the spikes, and bare- 
footed natives suffer severely in consequence. Wherever these jungle 
tracts are found, it is certain that the majority of the white rhinoceroses 
in the vicinity will be met with during the day sleeping far inside 
them, in the darkest and most inaccessible parts, to which silent 
approach is almost an impossibility even when the creatures’ guardian 
angels, the ‘“ Rhinoceros birds” (Buphagus erythrorhynchus: Red- 
billed Oxpecker) are not in evidence. 
It is well-known that there is considerable difference between the 
dung of the black and that of the white rhinoceros, and also in the 
manner in which it is deposited. That of the former species is always 
placed in large heaps, and after depositing it the animals scrape and 
scatter it about either with their horns or hind-feet. As they feed 
upon twigs, bark, and the green shoots of thorn-trees the dung is 
reddish-brown in colour, and is thus easily distinguishable from that 
of the larger species, consisting as this does entirely of grass, and being 
of a greenish colour when fresh, similar to that of zebras. Although 
the white rhinoceros does not systematically deposit its dung in heaps, 
and never afterwards disturbs or scatters it, I have remarked that as 
often as not this animal does visit one spot over and over again for the 
purpose, and though in some cases I have obtained proof that these 
heaps have been made by one animal, I am not prepared to state that 
one such place is not visited by a number of different animals. 
An unusual fact, or one that does not appear to have been recorded 
from elsewhere, has been noticed in connection with such deposits in 
the Game Reserve. At one spot, not 50 yards from one of my camps, 
in the middle of an opening in the bush, there was a very large 
‘dumping ground” consisting of a hollow scooped out in the sandy 
soil, roughly oval in shape, and about 11 feet in length by 7 feet in 
width. Whether the hole had been made by the animal itself or by 
some other creature it was impossible to determine, but at all events the 
hole was there, and was about 2 feet deep, and init had been deposited 
