154 A Memoir on the living Asiatic Species of Rhinoceros. [No. 2, 



Professor Schinz, in his Synop>sis Mammalium (1845), makes out 

 as many as eight living species of Rhinoceros. The two Asiatic 

 one-horned species, of course ; and sondaictjs only from Java : stj- 

 Matbanus from Sumatra only ; and of this he remarks — -" Cornu 

 anterius mediocre, posterius minutum" (not having seen Bell's out- 

 line of the horns of the male, in the Phil. Trans, for 1793, to be 

 noticed presently). His Hh. niger and his Sh. Camperi must alike 

 be referred to Eh. aebjcantis (seu capensis). Next, Eh. simus and 

 Eh. keitloa ; but, of course, neither Eh. Oswellii nor Eh. Ceos- 

 sii. But what is his Sh. cucullatus, Wagler (Schreber's SupjJ., 

 tab. CCCXVIL— F. Schinz, Monagr., t. 4) ? Unless an ill-stuffed 

 Eh. sttmateantts ! " Eh. cornubus duobus, capite sensim elevato, 

 plicis cutis profundis [!], clypeo scapulari indiviso, supra latiori, epi- 

 dermide verrucis parvis obsita. Capite elongato, auriculis subcylin- 

 dricis, labro elongato prehensili, cauda mecliocri. Long, corporis 6, 

 11", caudae 1' 7". Altitudo stethiaei 3' 4 V, uraei 3' 4J-". Habitat 

 ? Hospitatur in museo Monacensi." 



From examination of an extensive series of skulls of Asiatic Ehi- 

 noceroses, it is impossible not to discern that there are three well 

 marked species, each of which varies considerably in the shape of the 

 cranium. Of each there is a shorter and broader type, higher at the 

 occiput, wider anterior to the orbits ; and also a type the opposite of 

 this, with every intermediate gradation. This amount of variation 

 in the existing Asiatic species of the genus should intimate caution 

 in the acceptance of all of the very numerous fossil forms that have 

 been named by palaeontologists. 



The Eh. sondaichs and Eh. stjmateaktjs are very inadecpiately 

 represented by the figures of skulls published by Cuvier and de 

 Blainville. Those of both authors represent the narrow type, as dis- 

 tinguished from the broad type ; whereas their figures of the skull 

 of Eh. indicus (seu unicornis, L.,) represent an unusually fine 

 broad example of the species (doubtless the skull of the individual 

 figured from life in the Menagerie du Museum d'Hist. Nat.) ; which 

 gives a far greater amount of contrast of appearance to the skulls of 

 indicus and sondaictjs, than exists in average specimens of those of 

 the two species. 



The skulls of ustdicus and sondaicus appear to differ only, con- 

 stantly, in the former being considerably larger, and having the con- 



