CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE RHINOCEROS. 



THE FAMILY RHINOCEROTID^) — GENERAL DESCRIPTION — THE HORN — PECULIAR STRUCTURE OF THE 

 HORN — KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS — WOOD-CUT BY ALBERT DURER — ARAB SUPERSTITIONS — 

 HAUNTS OF THE RHINOCEROS— A NOCTURNAL ANIMAL— ITS FOOD — ITS HABITS — ITS SENSES — 

 ITS FITS OF RAGE— MATERNAL AFFECTION— ITS FRIENDS THE SMALL BIRDS— CAPTIVE RHI 

 NOCEROSES — USES OF ITS HIDE. 



THE family Rhinocerotld^e . is especially characteristic of 

 Africa and Northern and Malayan India. Four or five species, 

 all two-horned, are found in Africa, where they range ovei the 

 whole country south of the desert to the Cape of Good Hope. In the 

 east of Asia there are also four or five species which range from the 

 forests at the foot of the Himalayas eastward through Anam and Siam 

 to Sumatra, Borneo, and Java. Three of these Asiatic species are one- 

 horned, the others found in Sumatra and Java are two-horned. All 

 these species are so much alike, that most naturalists do not consider 

 them as forming distinct genera. Gray, however, divides the Asiatic 

 Rhinoceros into two genera, Rhinoceros and Ceratorhinus, and the African 

 into two, Rhinaster and Ceratotherium. 



The Rhinocerotid^e are all clumsy and unwieldy-looking animals 

 of considerable size, characterized by a remarkably elongated head, the 

 front part of which bears one horn, or two in a line, a short neck, a 

 powerful body, entirely or almost entirely devoid of hair but covered 

 with a thick armor-like hide, a short tail, short stumpy legs, all of 

 which terminate in three toes enveloped in hoofs. The mouth is 

 disproportionately small, the upper lip is developed into a trunk- 

 like process, while the under-lip is square and truncated, the eye is 

 small, the ear rather large. The hide, which is almost impenetrable, 

 is in some species divided by folds of soft and pliant skin into a series of 

 shield-like plates, in others it lies close to the body with only a few 

 slight folds. The few hairs which appear on the animal are confined to 



