34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 6l 



in Mashonaland as 6 feet 6 inches and 6 feet 9 inches, respectively. 

 One of these bulls is now mounted in the British Museum and the 

 other is in the Tring Museum. The British Museum specimen 

 shows a height of 5 feet 10 inches, and the Tring specimen 6 feet 

 V/2 inches. The great discrepancies between the flesh measurements 

 and the specimens as mounted are no doubt due to errors made by the 

 sportsmen in the field. Such exaggerations may be due to measuring 

 over the curve of the shoulder, or else forward to the top of the 

 prominent hump on the neck. At all events the mounted specimens 

 should show at least as great height as the specimens in life, and the 

 possibilities are that they actually exceed the flesh dimensions some- 

 what. The most reliable data in regard to exact size is to be obtained 

 from mounted skeletons. The largest of the three skeletons measured 

 shows a height of 5 feet and 9 inches, the other two are several inches 

 lower. The tanned skins of the specimens secured in equatorial 

 Africa, and now in the National Museum, show measurements 

 slightly exceeding those taken in the flesh. It is very doubtful if the 

 square-nosed rhinoceroses ever exceed a standing height at the 

 withers of 6 feet. The flesh measurements of the Lado specimens 

 agree fairly well with the dimensions of the known mounted speci- 

 mens. This agreement is in accord with the relative size of the skulls 

 from these respective northern and southern localities, which are prac- 

 tically equal. It is significant in this connection to find that the largest 

 skull in the Lado series exceeds somewhat in bulk and zygomatic 

 width any other known specimen, thus exceeding any known skull 

 from South Africa. The longest skull measured, however, is a South 

 African specimen preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons at London. 



GENERAL HISTORY 



Much confusion has until recently existed in regard to the validity 

 of records of the occurrence of the square-lipped rhinoceros in equa- 

 torial Africa. The first real evidence of its occurrence to the north 

 of the Zambesi River was the skull procured in 1900 by Major Gib- 

 bons in the Lado Enclave. Upon the receipt of this proof, naturalists 

 were inclined to give credence to the earlier reports of this species' 

 occurrence by Speke, Grant, Von Hohnel, Gregory, and others. The 

 distribution of the large mammals in the regions through which these 

 pioneer explorers travelled is now fairly well known, and there is 

 little doubt but that all their records referred to the black rhino. 

 Dr. Trouessart, of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, has 



