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



procured, appear to be merely the longer horns of the two-horned 

 species separated from the smaller one. There is, however, another 

 animal in the forests of Sumatra never yet noticed, which, in size 

 and character, nearly resembles the Ehinoceros, and which is said to 

 bear a single horn. This animal is distinguished by having a narrow 

 whitish belt encircling the body, and is known to the natives of the 

 interior by the name of Tennu. It has been seen at several places ; 

 and the descriptions given of it by people, quite unconnected with 

 each other, coincide so nearly, that no doubt can be entertained of 

 the existence of such an animal. It is said to resemble in some par- 

 ticulars the Buffalo, and in others the Badah or Ehinoceros. A spe- 

 cimen has not yet been procured ; but I have several persons on the 

 look out, and have little doubt of soon being able to forward a more 

 accurate description from actual examination. 



" It should be remarked," continues Raffles, "that the native 

 name, Tennu, has, until latehy, been understood to belong to the Tapir. 

 It is so applied at Malacca, and by some of the people at Bencoolen. 

 In the interior, however, where the animals are best known, the 

 white-banded Rhinoceros is called Tennu, and the Tapir Gindol, and 

 by some Bali Alu. It is not impossible, that, as both animals have 

 white bands, the names may have been confounded by people little 

 in the habit of seeing either, and deriving their information solely 

 from report. In a country like Sumatra, where the inhabitants, in 

 a great measure shut out from general communication, are divided 

 into an infinity of tribes, speaking different dialects, a perfect con- 

 sistency or uniformity of nomenclature cannot be expected, and it is 

 not always easy to reconcile the synonymy." (Lin. Tr. XIII, 269.) 



It naturally occurs to the mind, that, if the Tennu really exists, 

 it would long ere this have been discovered, in all probability, in 

 the neighbouring Malayan peninsula : but how little is even now 

 known of the great animals inhabiting that peninsula ! The late Dr. 

 Cantor, when he wrote his Catalogue of the Vertebrated Animals of 

 the Malayan peninsula, was unaware of the existence there of Bos 

 sokdaictjs in addition to B. gattrtis, only includes a two-horned 

 Rhinoceros on the testimony of the Malays, and whether the Ele- 

 phas stjmateafus occurs on the mainland of Asia (like the Tapir 

 and the two insular species of Rhinoceros, the Bos sondaicus and 

 others,) is still undetermined. It is possible enough, though doubt- 



