by I. Vaughan-Kirby. 237 
To compensate them for this defective power of sight they possess 
a wonderfully acute sense of smell, and under favourable conditions 
can wind a person at a distance of fully half-a-mile. And it is entirely 
to this acute sense that the animal trusts to warn it of enemies, and 
when annoyed and irritated by the suspected presence of danger from 
below wind, as for instance when its feeble vision detects objects 
close at hand, but its sense of smell fails, owing to the direction of the 
wind, to confirm its suspicions, the animal becomes utterly bemused 
and nervous. Presumably it fears to bolt off, lest there may be 
danger elsewhere than at the spot at which its weak eyesight has led 
it to suspect it, yet one would imagine that it would rely entirely 
under such circumstances upon its sense of smell, and move off at 
once up wind, 
A black rhinoceros thus situated would at once advance towards the 
object of its suspicion, but not so the white, which shuffles it feet 
about, alternately raises and lowers its head, twists and untwists its 
tail, gazes from one side to the other, while all the time its ears are 
energetically worked about, and generally displays the upmost 
nervousness. At last these nervous actions cease, the head is raised, and 
for a few seconds the animal stares hard in the direction of the 
suspected danger, then wheeling round it trots off at a sharp pace. 
The sense of hearing, while considerably less acute than that of 
scent, is greater than their powers of vision. On my recent collecting 
trip I was approaching a single rhinoceros, and was accompanied by 
four natives. |My object was to secure a photograph, but as I only 
had a Vest-Pocket Camera, with an excellent, but short focus and 
very wide-angle lens, it was necessary to approach the animal to at 
least a distance of 20 yards. When still fully 60 yards from the 
animal, I withdrew the camera from its case, handing the latter 
together with my rifle to one of the natives, who in receiving them, 
stupidly dropped the leather case, which fell with a hollow sound on 
to an emerged tree-root. Glancing at the rhinoceros, I saw it raise 
its head instantly, turn half round, and face the party, the sound 
having been clearly heard by it, in fact its suspicions had been so 
aroused, that before we had covered another ten yards, the animal 
made off, followed by three others which had previously been hidden 
by a thick grove of trees. At a distance of about 25 yards a white 
rhinoceros bull most obviously detected the sound of the opening and 
closing of a camera shutter, because the animal, which had previously 
been standing broadside on, at once, at the click of the shutter, swung 
round and stared hard in my direction. 
