The Black Rhinoceros 45 



slopes of the principal mountains and ranges. In Uganda, Usoga, and 

 Kavirondo, bordering Lake Victoria Nyanza, on the contrary, where the 

 climate is moister, there are, so far as I am aware, no rhinoceroses ; and 

 similarly they are absent from the neighbourhood of the sea coast. On 

 the other hand, the rhinoceros cannot do without water. He must drink 

 nightly or daily (I have many times watched one drink in broad daylight) ; 

 and, when he can, he likes to take a mud bath. For this reason, though he 

 will wander many miles away in search of food, he is never seen any very 

 great distance from water ; and the sight of one of these animals is a sign 

 that water is to be found somewhere within a distance of not more than 

 about 8 or 10 miles. Rolling in the dust is also a favourite way of making 

 his toilet ; and, in consequence of this habit, he generally approximates in 

 colour to the soil of the country he inhabits. Thus in one district the 

 rhinos appear almost white, in another red, or nearly black, as the case 

 may be. 



These creatures wander about and feed all night, and, where not much 

 disturbed, during a good part of the day too, though during the hottest 

 hours they commonly sleep, sometimes under a tree, at others quite in the 

 open. But where much harassed by natives they are seldom or never seen 

 abroad by daylight, but hide themselves away in the densest thickets, so 

 that only the spoor made during their nightly rambles betrays the fact of 

 their presence in the locality. 



Although the black rhinoceros does not eat grass, in open country its 

 food consists, to a great extent, of weeds and plants that grow among the 

 herbage of the plains, and it may be seen apparently grazing. During 

 periods of drought, in particular, these animals wander far over the uplands 

 in search of food, coming down during the night to slake their thirst at 

 some pool left in the bed of a watercourse, many miles distant, to which 

 their well-worn paths converge. 



As has often been pointed out, the rhino is the most intensely stupid 



