1862.] Correspondence. 199 



animal was shot by Sir J. Barlow, B£., (then Mr. Barlow,) in the 

 Jessore district, and his people brought the carcass to Calcutta by 

 Tolly's nulla. It was conveyed to the Mint, and was there prepared 

 as a skeleton by Mr. W. E. Templeton (subsequently employed as a 

 taxidermist by the Society) for the late James Prinsep, who after- 

 wards presented it in the name of Mr. Barlow for the Society's 

 museum.* 



Baber's account of the Rhinoceros, as given in Mr. Erskine's 

 translation, is as follows : — 



In his notice of the " animals peculiar to Hindustan, after describ- 

 ing the Elephant, he remarks — 



" The Rhinoceros is another. This also is a huge animal. Its 

 bulk is equal to that of three Buffaloes. The opinion prevalent in 

 pur countries, that a Rhinoceros can lift an Elephant on its horn, is 

 probably a mistake. It has a single horn over its nose, upwards of 

 a span in length ; but I never saw one of two spans. Out of one of 

 the largest of these horns I had a drinking-vessel made and a dice-box, 

 and about three or four fingers' bulk of it might be left. Its hide is 

 very thick. If it be shot at with a powerful bow, drawn up to the 

 arm-pit with much force, and if the arrow pierces at all, it enters only 

 three or four fingers' breadth. They say, however, that there are 

 parts of his skin that may be pierced and the arrows enter deep. On 

 the sides of its two shoulder-blades, and of its two thighs, are folds 

 that hang loose, and appear at a distance like cloth-housings dang_ 

 ling over it. It bears more resemblance to the Horse than to any 

 other animal. As the Horse has a large stomach, so has this :f as the 

 pastern of a Horse is composed of a single bone, so also is that of 

 the Rhinoceros. It is more ferocious than the Elephant, and cannot 

 be rendered so tame or obedient. There are numbers of them in the 

 jungles of Peshawer and Hashnaghar, as well as between the river 

 Sind and Behreh in the jungles. In Hindustan, too, they abound on 

 the banks of the river Sirwu. In the course of my expeditions into 

 Hindustan, in the jungles of Peshawer and Hashnaghar, I frequent- 

 ly killed the Rhinoceros. It strikes powerfully with its horn, with 

 which, in the course of these hunts, many men, and many horses, 



* I find that, in the Catalogue of the mammalia in the India House Museum 

 (p. 195), the habitat of Rh. sondaicus is set down as "Java exclusively'." 

 f Linnaeus remarks — " Viscera ad equina acvedunt.'' 



2 D 



