by F. Vaughan-Kirby. 241 
loud grunting squeals made by a dying animal. The former has been 
heard upon several occasions when white rhinoceroses have come close 
to my camps, from below wind, in the night, and the latter I have 
heard made by wounded animals. 
Reference has already been made to grunting sounds proceeding 
from a spot where an immature rhinoceros was wallowing, and that 
although upon our approaching closely and watching it, it was not 
seen to make any sound, yet both I and the natives who were with me 
believed that those we had heard so distinctly proceeded from that 
particular animal. At the same time, it must be admitted that there 
are large numbers of baboons in that part of the country, and it is 
just possible that a solitary male of that species might have been down 
at the mud-hole, and uttered the grunts as it moved off, and it will be 
noted that at the time, and before sighting the rhinoceros, we believed 
it was a baboon. 
The white rhinoceros is an easily killed beast, as indeed is the black, 
and succumbs quickly to a shot through the upper portion of the heart 
or through both lungs. In the latter case it is essential that the 
bullet shall penetrate the two lungs, otherwise if only one is touched 
the wounded animal will travel for ever, and it is very little use trying 
to follow one so hit. 
We have very little reliable information concerning the breeding 
habits of the white rhinoceros, and such as we do possess has caused 
considerable divergence of conclusions. 
The generally expressed opinion is that it breeds very slowly, but 
Heller, basing his conclusions upon the evidence gathered on the 
Smithsonian Nile Expedition, opines that the reverse is the case, and 
it would seem that he had strong reasons for so thinking. In Zulu- 
land there is no doubt that this animal breeds very slowly, and this 
opinion was held by the late Mr. Selous in respect of the animals in 
Rhodesia. 
Heller points out that in the Nile region “the adult female is 
seldom found without a calf.” This condition also obtains in Zululand. 
But as in the latter case these calves are invariably animals of fully 
four years old, and there is no younger animal running with the parent, 
it may be assumed that a period of at least four years elapses between 
the birth of one calf and that of the next. And this appears to be 
borne out by the conditions under which I have occasionally seen two 
calves with the mother, the elder of the two being an animal, as I 
should judge, of between four and six years old, and the younger less 
than a year. 
