38 Great and Small Game of Africa 



aggressive, the rhino is of most uncertain temper, and when wounded and 

 encountered at close quarters can and will charge most fiercely, and 

 occasionally is as vindictive as any buffalo ; my experience, at all events, 

 distinctly points to this conclusion. 1 Rhinoceroses utter three characteristic 

 cries — a succession of deep, blethering grunts, made, I fancy, by the males 

 alone, and at certain seasons ; the " locomotive " snort, which accompanies 

 a charge or an ignominious flight when suddenly alarmed ; and the shrill 

 squeal of approaching dissolution. 



A few years ago rhino were far more widely distributed throughout 

 Central South Africa than at present. There are probably not a dozen 

 left in even the remotest corners of the North-Eastern Transvaal, where once 

 they abounded ; two or three in the Matamiri bush, and a few in the 

 Libombo range near Oliphant's River Poort represent all. In the rough, 

 broken country south of the Zambesi and east of the Falls, in parts of the 

 Barue country and Chiringoma, P.E.A., they are still fairly numerous, 

 and there are a few in Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and Amatongaland. In 

 1893-94 I found them plentiful in Portuguese Northern Zambesia to the 

 south-east of Tete, and on my last expedition, 1896-97, established the fact 

 of their frequent occurrence in the interior of the Mozambique province. 



Rhino lie up during the heat of the day in dense patches of scrub or 

 grass-jungle, or under the shade of a solitary bush or tree in the open, 

 though quite as frequently they are found out in the quivering heat, entirely 

 unsheltered from the sun's burning rays. In hot weather they move off 

 towards their watering-places — which are often far distant — at sunset, 

 drinking between 6 and 8 p.m. ; at such times they make a maze of tracks 

 in the sand as they wander from pool to pool. After drinking, they set 

 out in a bee-line for their feeding-grounds, and browse throughout the 

 night, during which they cover a great deal of ground ; and even then, it 



1 I know an instance of a native being charged and killed, and of another whom I met personally 

 who was chased and regularly hunted by a wounded one, which caught and fearfully mutilated him. 



