240 The White Rhinoceros in Zululand 
occasion when passing through the latter about midnight, I and the 
party of natives accompanying me were held up by an aggressive 
black rhinoceros. 
The two species, however, seemed to have mingled together in former 
days in their old haunts in Rhodesia, but it is noted that Heller 
remarks that in the Nile regions neither encroaches upon the habitat 
of the other. 
They are frequently accompanied by the “ 'Tick-birds” (Buphagus 
erythrorhynchus) and sometimes by the Buffbacked and the Little 
Egrets (Bubulcus ibis and Herodias garzetta). The former scramble 
about all over the huge animals, exactly as they do upon cattle, and 
as they are particularly wide-awake birds it is very difficult to approach 
their host when they are present, as they invariably set up a loud 
screeching, and in that way and by running rapidly about over its 
head, sound a warning of which even this dull-witted pachyderm 
never fails to avail itself. The egrets sedately follow up the rhinoceroses 
as they move, and may frequently be seen taking ticks from under the 
animal’s belly. In reward for these services they get many a joy-ride 
on his back. 
Burning stretches of grass within the range of their habitat in the 
Game Reserve appears to cause them some annoyance, and they usually 
repair to some other locality for a couple of days, after which they 
return and wander about over the burnt ground without any sign of 
alarm. Usually they are not alarmed at grass-fires, but it is possible 
that in Zululand, the knowledge that their range is comparatively 
restricted, may account for the fact that these fires cause them 
considerable temporary annoyance. 
The late Mr. Selous states in one or other of his most interesting 
works that he has never met with a case of an adult rhinoceros 
perspiring, although the young calves do so most freely. I have, how- 
ever, met with cases of the adults perspiring quite as freely, the black 
more so than the white, and mainly about the neck and flanks. 
After the statement made by the above authority I would hesitate 
to record otherwise, but for the fact that I am so certain about this. 
The black rhinoceros cow, for instance, which was shot in the Hluhluwe 
Game Reserve last winter for the purpose of securing the calf, was 
covered with perspiration about the neck and flanks, and this was noted 
by the writer and his friends who accompanied him. 
The only sounds which I have ever actually seen a white rhinoceros 
in the act of making are a loud snort or sniff, made when the animal 
comes upon some object the nature of which is foreign to him, and 
