472 UNGULATA. 



hard plates, which can be lifted up by hand, are as thick and solid as 

 boards. The first fold runs just behind the head around the neck, form- 

 ing below it a kind of dewlap ; from this fold two oblique folds, one on 

 each side, run backwards and upwards, deep at first, but vanishing at the 

 withers ; from the centres of these folds a pair of creases runs forward to 

 the back of the neck. Behind the withers is a very conspicuous deep 

 fold which descends behind the shoulder-blade, and then turns horizon- 

 tally over the fore-arm and passes in front of it. Another deep fold com- 

 mences at the loins, and descends obliquely in front of the thigh, sending 

 out other folds toward the tail. The hide appears divided into three 

 grand pieces, one on the head and shoulders, another one on the body, 

 the third on the hind-quarters. The animal is thus defended with a shield 

 on its back, one on each shoulder, one on the rump, and one on each 

 thigh. This hide has been compared to a suit of armor of well-adjusted 

 pieces. It is, however, so thick and hard that, without these creases or 

 folds, the animal, imprisoned as it were in its armor, could scarely move. 

 It is of a dark color, nearly bare, generally provided with only a few 

 coarse and stiff hairs on the tail and ears, occasionally with curly woolly 

 hairs on certain parts of the body. But each of these shields is every- 

 where covered with irregular, round, more or less smooth, tubercles of 

 horn, which lie so thick together on the outside of the legs that these 

 limbs look as if they were covered with scale-armor. The skin in the 

 folds is of a dark flesh-color. 



The tubercular prominences on the hide sometimes assume an extra- 

 ordinary degree of development. In the old wood-cut by Albert Durer, 

 the Rhinoceros is represented with horns on the shoulder-plates as well 

 as on the nose. In the Zoological Gardens of Antwerp, a Rhinoceros 

 eighteen years old was remarkable for the size of these tubercles ; some 

 were as large as hazel-nuts, others on the collar-bone and on the skin 

 before the ears attained a length varying from two to five inches. In 

 the centre of the neck there was a group of five perpendicular horns, one 

 of which was over three inches in height. These little horns fell off from 

 time to time, and were quite different in structure from the wart-like 

 knobs which occur on the sides of the animal. A Rhinoceros in the 

 Zoological Gardens of Moscow did actually shed a horn, and another 

 grew in its place. There can be no doubt this happens with wild animals. 



The Indian Rhinoceros is at present restricted to the Terai, an un- 

 healthy, marshy tract at the foot of the Himalayas, skirting Nepaul, 



