MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 773 



too well known that they are persistently hunted by Siamese and Chinese 

 shikaris, who shoot them over water holes during the dry season for the sake 

 of the valuable medicinal properties they are supposed to possess, which with- 

 out doubt accounts for their scarcity, the thick jungles and comparatively 

 sparse population where they still exist being probably the only things 

 that have prevented their extermination long ago. One Siamese shikari 

 near Victoria Point is said to have accounted for sixteen Rhino, probably a 

 very high percentage of those existing in the whole district. The contin- 

 ued watch a native shikari is able to keep over the water holes throughout 

 a considerable area must cause tremendous destruction among these 

 animals and a dead Rhino is said to be worth Rs. 1,000, a fortune to most 

 shikaris. Unfortunately, as in other places, although game laws are 

 enforced strictly enough among Europeans, they are quite iinable to cope 

 with the secrecy with which a native is able to carry on his hunting, and 

 although there may not be a large nvimber of guns in the district, if there 

 is only one in a village it is idle to suppose it is not at the disposal of 

 any one who wants it. 



The Chinese, Burmese and Siamese preserve practically every part of a 

 Rhinoceros. The horns, hoofs, blood, urine, hide and even the intestines 

 being dried and afterwards converted into various medicines. 



Rhinoceroses are said to occasionally swim from the mainland to some 

 of the islands near the coast, but which species, or whether both, do it I 

 have been unable to find out. I have been told that once as many as 

 eight were seen together on one of these islands, but this must have been 

 a very exceptional instance, as in addition to their scarcity I believe them 

 to be rarely, if ever, intentionally gregarious, going about as a rule in pairs 

 and possibly often wandering about singly, although a pair will probably 

 keep in touch and meet in the course of the night. 



For its size a Rhinoceros does not leave a big track although easy to 

 follow owing to the pits made in the ground by their toes. I had many 

 opportunities of following and observing Rhinoceros tracks both at Banka- 

 chon and Maliwun. The usual thing is evidently for a pair to frequent a 

 district for a month or so, and then to move off somewhere else, their move- 

 ments being probably affected by the water-supply. They apparently do not 

 care for clear running streams and are said only to visit the lotv ground 

 during the hot season when their drinking pools in the hills have dried up. 

 Where there are plenty of well beaten tracks ' wallows ' will occasionally be 

 found which besides being drinking places are used for rolling in, owing 

 to which habit they are always covered more or less thickly with a coating 

 of mud which probably serves as a protection against mosquitos. Two 

 ' wallows ' found were quite small, more or less oval in shape, about 8 feet by 6 

 and full of stirred up mud, one near Maliwun had evidently been much 

 used and deserted quite recently having probably got too dry. Tracks led 

 off in all directions, the surrounding jungle was very thick and the tracks pre- 

 sented the appearance of large tunnels, while the trunks of standing and fallen 

 trees and even the undergrowth for several hundred yards in every direction 

 were white with dry caked mud, which had been rubbed off by the constant 

 passing backwards and forwards of at least a pair of these animals. 



The track made by a Rhinoceros is quite different to that of an Elephant. 

 Where an Elephant will break a path a Rhinoceros will make a tunnel, even 

 creepers three or four feet from the ground stretching across their path will 

 not be broken but burrowed under. 



They are evidently largely ground feeders, a number of large citrous fruits 

 resembling oranges, merely bitten in half and swallowed, being found in the 

 stomach of the specimen shot. With the exception of these, the stomach 

 contained green vegetable matter, probably the fallen leaves of the same tree. 



