ZOOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 75 
RECORD COW WHITE RHINOCEROS 
Her size can be judged by comparison with the standing native. 
A fit partner to the bull figured in the frontispiece. 
thirty-six and one quarter inches, and the rear one twenty-two and one half inches. 
inches and rear one twenty-one and one-half 
inches. The great development of both rear 
horns is unusual. 
Those 
a young 
Museum and long since have been imbued with 
lifelike appearances. Indeed the artistic skill 
of Messrs. Carl Akeley and J. L. Clark in 
modeling the group arouses the admiration of 
two huge rhinocernses, together with 
specimen, now are in the American 
all visitors who behold these huge dark mon- 
Many ask: “Why do they call them 
The story is a simple one: 
sters. 
white?” 
Formerly the two kinds of Afri- 
Causes : 
Be ts can rhinoceroses, the black and 
Golo the white, were fairly common in 
Names certain regions of South Africa. 
Their habits being vitally differ- 
ent, it is probable that in the same regions they 
different. The white 
pend to a great extent on wallowing places, 
looked rhinoceroses de- 
and a mud bath is an absolute necessity. Though 
their rough hide normally is dark gray, after 
every 
plunge their “coat of armor” gradually 
changes to the color that the mud assumes when 
dry. The bulk of the dirt is rubbed off at once 
The front horn measured 
A side view is shown on p. 73. 
against bushes and tree trunks, or when the 
The 
body temperature dries out the rest and the 
rhinoceros rolls about on the ground. 
blaze of the tropical sun often adds a glare to 
the fire to the and 
deeper shadows to the darker hues of loam. 
white, or red tones, also 
But after only a few hours, every trace has 
been shaken off. 
The color of these rhinoceroses therefore de- 
pends at times on the reddish-brown, black, blue 
or whitish mud of the mires in which they have 
In South Africa those who originally 
thus 
wallowed. 
coined the name 
have seen them as they were self-painted by 
earth. J 
“white rhinoceros” may 
“white” have even observed one a 
dark green, still covered with the scum of alge 
Others 
were jet black from passing across a portion 
Per- 
haps the charred, cork-like bark of certain trees 
from a pond near a papyrus swamp. 
of the veldt recently swept by grass fires. 
had helped to make them such terrible looking 
monsters. Jn addition, hundreds of well-scoured 
places on the veldt, often near waterholes, tes- 
tify how fond they are of taking dust baths, 
which may contribute to a still different aspect. 
