332 MR. R. T. CORYXDOX OX THE [Apr. 8 , 



I will now describe a curious habit of R. simus ; it is in the 

 manner of dropping its dung. R. bicomis, after doing this, pro- 

 ceeds to stamp upon the dung and to tear and dig up the ground in 

 the immediate vicinity, so that there is absolutely no chance of any 

 one missing the place where a R. bicomis has spent the day. 

 R. simus, how ever, leaves his dung alone and does not trample 

 and scatter it about ; moreover, he is conservative in these matters ; 

 he always drops his dung in one place until he has raised a huge 

 heap, then he starts the same operation in another place, and so on. 



For this reason it is impossible to confound the species when 

 following spoor, in addition lo which the footprints of R. simus are 

 much larger than those of R. bicomis, and one observes also the 

 marks that each leaves upon the twigs or the grass they feed upon. 



I think the longest horn of R. simus known measures 56| inches, 

 and I believe specimens of the horns of R. bicomis are in existence 

 which measure 40 inches. It goes, of course, without saying that 

 all the long-horned examples of R. simus have been shot out of the 

 country years ago. Should, in the future, another specimen be shot 

 and preserved, I fancy the hunter will not cavil at the length — or 

 rather the shortness — of the horn it may carry. 



Until 1892, the last White Ehinoceros shot was, I believe, in 

 1886. John Engelbrecht and another Dutchman then killed ten of 

 them, and five more were shot in the same season by native hunters 

 from Matabililand. 



It is a curious fact that under the skin of the two animals which 

 I shot I found six native bullets, which the Rhinoceroses must have 

 carried about with them for years ; two of these bullets were of 

 hammered iron and four were of lead. This remarkable fact is 

 decidedly in favour of my argument that it is impossible to preserve 

 the very few remaining specimens, as the natives of course do not 

 look at the matter from the same point of view as savants at home ; 

 they want meat, and when they shoot or trap an animal, which is 

 luckily seldom, they do not preserve the skin. 



If the Rhinoceroses are not shot by white men they will most 

 assuredly be shot by natives. In the former case the skeletons and 

 hides will be set up for the public benefit in our museums ; in the 

 latter — well, a few jackals and vultures, and some small kraal hidden 

 away in the bush in the almost unexplored flats in Africa, will alone 

 benefit — and at a cost which I fancy Europeans do not as yet suf- 

 ficiently appreciate. As time goes on zoologists will the more regret 

 that the largest of land mammals after the Elephaut has become 

 extinct — and this, too, although almost unrepresented in all the 

 splendid museums in Europe and America. 



1 will now give a short account of the specimens of the White 

 Rhinoceros that I have lately shot. 



About the middle of 1892 I was on the Zambesi, and after 

 spending some time with the Portuguese, I proceeded to return to 

 Salisbury in Mashonaland. On the way we found three White 

 Rhinoceroses and shot the calf; the two old ones, though badly 

 wounded, managed to escape. Next morniug my companion, 



