646 



ME. P. L. SCLATER OX THE RHINOCEROSES 



" I beg leave to exhibit a drawing of the present state of the horn of our old female 

 Rhinoceros, which has now been in the Gardens since 1850 (fig. 1). Instead of rising 

 nearly perpendicularly from the nose, as in the ordinary form of this species, the horn 

 in this animal projects forward beyond tlie end of the nostrils, and has now attained a 

 length of 18 inches or thereabouts. This may perhaps be due to the practice indulged 

 in by tliis animal for several years of grinding down her horn against the bars of her 

 cage ; for it is only within the last few years that tliis appendage has grown into its 

 present shape." 



Kg. 1- 



Head of li. unicornis J , with distorted horn. 



In 1864 an important addition was made to our series of Rhinoceroses by the arrival 

 of a young pair of the present species from Calcutta, along with other animals, under 

 the care of the late Mr. James Thompson, then head Keeper. Of these the male had 

 been sent home as a present by Mr. A. Grote ; the female was purchased for us by 

 Mr. Thompson in Calcutta, along with a third specimen destined for the Zoological 

 Gardens of Dublin. All these Rhinoceroses were, as Mr. Grote has kindly informed 

 me, originally obtained from Assam, through the intervention of Colonel Agnew, then 

 Commissioner of that province. 



Having already a female B. unicornis in the Menagerie, the Council determined to 

 part with the second example of the same sex thus acquired, and, in 1865, exchanged 

 her with the Jardin des PI antes, Paris, for an African Elephant. The male remains 

 still in our Gardens in excellent health and condition, and is the original of the water- 



