66 Great and Small Game of Africa 



encountered these animals on the open grass plains in the neighbourhood of 

 the Vaal River, this fact may have appealed to them, and caused them to 

 bestow upon the square -mouthed rhinoceros a name which has always 

 appeared to me to be singularly inappropriate. I have often seen large 

 sheets of hide from freshly-killed specimens of both species of African 

 rhinoceroses lying in camp side by side, waiting to be cut into sjamboks, 

 and certainly never noticed much difference between the two in the colour 

 of the epidermis, though the hide of the square-mouthed rhinoceros was a 

 good deal thicker than that of the prehensile-lipped species. Cornwallis 

 Harris, however, speaks of the white rhinoceros as varying in colour, but 

 being usually a dirty brownish-white. All that I have seen appeared to 

 me to be of about the same colour, a uniform gray, with no suspicion of 

 brown or white about them. 



White rhinoceroses used generally to be met with in pairs or families, 

 a bull and cow living together with a calf, or perhaps two calves, one of 

 which, in such a case, would be quite a large animal. 



In old days, when white rhinoceroses were very numerous, no doubt 

 several pairs or families were often attracted to the same piece of pasture, 

 and when feeding near together would have presented the appearance of a 

 herd, though, had such a herd been watched, I expect it would have been 

 seen to break up, and divide into families of three or four, on leaving the 

 feeding-grounds. In height a white rhinoceros bull often stood well over 

 6 feet at the withers. 



Cornwallis Harris gave their height as from 6 feet 6 inches to 6 feet 

 8 inches at the withers, and Mr. R. T. Coryndon, who is a very careful and 

 reliable field naturalist, has recorded the following measurements of the last 

 two white rhinoceros bulls which he shot in Mashunaland. No. I — height 

 at shoulder, 6 feet 9 inches ; length of anterior horn, 1 foot 1 1 inches ; 

 of posterior horn, 8 inches ; length from base of front horn to tip of tail, 

 16 feet. No. 2 — height at shoulder, 6 feet 6 inches ; length of anterior 



