1881.] SOUTH-AFRICAN RHINOCEROSKS. 731 



open ; and I then dismounted within twenty yards of him ; yet he 

 never attempted to charge. Now I douht if there is a lion, an 

 elephant, or a buffalo which, under similar circumstances, would not 

 have charged. In my experience of hunting, many fatal accidents, 

 and still more narrow escapes, from lions, elephants, and buffaloes 

 have come within my personal knowledge, but not one hunter, 

 black or white, has been injured by a Black Rhinoceros. 



I will now give my reasons for asserting that R. bico)-nis and 

 R. Iceitloa are not two distinct species, but merely varieties of the 

 same animal. Perhaps the most convincing argument in favour of 

 their being two distinct species is that ail the old Dutch hunters 

 and most of the natives declare that sucli is the case, and have 

 different names for the two animals. This, however, is by no 

 means so strong an argument as it would at first appear. At first 

 sight the typical R. Iceitloa, with both horns of equal length, is a 

 very different-looking animal from the typical R. bicornis, with a 

 posterior horn of only a few inches length ; and it is only after a 

 careful study of their habits, and the knowledge that every variety 

 of horn between the two extremes may be found, that I have 

 become convinced that R. Iceitloa and R. bicornis are only varieties 

 of the same animal. Now the greater part of the old Dutch 

 hunters, although they may have shot very many Rhinoceroses in 

 the course of their hunting careers, know nothing whatever about 

 the animals from a scientific point of view. They shot Rhino- 

 ceroses because they wanted meat ; but the only examination they 

 ever made of them was to see if they were fat. When now and 

 again they shot a Rhinoceros with both horns of equal length, or 

 nearly equal length, it struck their eye as being unusual, and so 

 they gave these equal-horned animals the name of Blue Rhino- 

 ceroses, to distinguish tbem from the White and the Black, as they 

 call R. simus and R. bicornis respectively. Now I have questioned 

 many of these old hunters upon the subject, and find that the only 

 point upon which they all agree is tliat the Blue Rhinoceros has 

 both horns of equal length, whilst the Black has always a short 

 second horn ; beyond this none of them know of any definite 

 distinction ; but many, not liking to appear ignorant, make asser- 

 tions that will not bear investigation, and one will often contradict 

 the statements of other equally experienced men. Now in the same 

 way every Dutch hunter will tell you that there are three, or even 

 four, distinct species of lions in Southern Africa, each species pos- 

 sessing its own distinctive characteristics. These species they 

 determine according to the length and colour of the mane in dif- 

 ferent individuals. Yet I think that naturalists are now agreed that 

 there is but one species of lion in all Africa. Therefore as regards 

 lions the testimony of old Dutch hunters is worthless from a 

 scientific point of view; and I believe it to be equally Avorthless with 

 regard to the plurality or unity of species of the Prehensile-lipped 

 Rhinoceros. One famous old Dutch hunter even affirms that there 

 are three species of Square-mouthed Rhinoceros, and four of the 



Prehensile-lipped, seven in all ; and he bases his distinctions almost 



47* 



