1881.] SOUTH-AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES. 727 



Square-mouthed Rhinoceros holds its head very low, its nose nearly- 

 touching the ground. A small calf always runs in front of its 

 mother ; and she appears to guide it by holding the point of her 

 horn upon the little auimal's rump ; and it is perfectly wonderful to 

 note how in all sudden changes of pace, from a trot to a gallop or 

 vice versa, the same position is always exactly maintained. During 

 the autumn and winter months (;". e. from March till August) the 

 Square-mouthed Rhinoceros is usually very fat ; and its meat is then 

 most excellent, being something like beef, but yet having a peculiar 

 flavour of its own. The part in greatest favour amongst hunters is 

 the hump, which, if cut off whole and roasted just as it is in the 

 skin in a hole dug in the ground, would, I think, be difficult to 

 match either for juiciness or flavour. 



In the Square-mouthed Rhinoceros the horns vary much in diffe- 

 rent individuals — so much so, indeed, that it would not be difficult 

 to find two specimens (taking both horns, of course) exhibiting forms 

 of horns as widely divergent one from another as are the typical horns 

 of JR. hicornis from those of the so-called R. keiiloa. 



The anterior horn of a full-grown Square-mouthed Rhinoceros 

 measures from 18 inches to over 4 feet in length, a cow having a 

 thinner and usually a longer horn than a bull. Now-a-days, however, 

 owing probably to all those that possessed remarkably long horns 

 having been shot, it is very rarely one sees a horn from a freshly- 

 killed animal measuring over 3 feet in length. This anterior horn 

 usually has a curve backwards, more or less pronounced ; but spe- 

 cimens are by no means uncommon which are perfectly straight, 

 or even bend slightly forwards. When the horn is quite straight 

 and about 3 feet in length, the point touches the ground as the 

 animal walks along feeding ; and thus, in specimens of long straight 

 horns, it may usually be noticed that just at the point the anterior 

 surface of the horn has been rubbed flat by friction against the 

 ground. I never remember to have seen an anterior horn of a 

 Square-mouthed Rhinocetos that was jierfectly round : they always 

 have the front surface partially flattened, and "may thus at a glance 

 be distinguished from the invariably rounded anterior horn of the Pre- 

 hensile-lipped Rhinoceros. In different individuals, too, the posterior 

 horn of the Square-mouthed Rhinoceros varies from a lump only 3 

 or 4 inches in height to a horn 2 feet in length. In some speci- 

 mens the anterior horn is long, whilst the posterior is very short ; in 

 others, again, both are well developed; and in some, again, both are 

 short. In fact, the horns of all South-African Rhinoceroses differ 

 to such an extent iu different individuals that if their classification 

 is to be based upon the length and shape of tlieir horns alone, it 

 would be as easy to make twenty species as four. If R. oswelli 

 (a variety of B. siimis based entirely upon the shape of tlie 

 anterior liorn) were a true species, I presume that the Square- 

 mouthed Rhinoceros with a straight anterior horn would not in- 

 terbreed with those carrying the commoner form of horn slightly 

 curved backwards : yet in the Mashuna country I have seen Square- 

 mouthed Rhinoceroses consorting together, the anterior horns of 



