THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
for both are bluish gray when clean. In both the skin lies 
smooth except about the bend of the neck, and is quite hairless ; 
and both have two horns in both sexes, — far longer ones than 
are ever worn by their more peaceful and swamp-dwelling Asi- 
atic cousins. The pair may be equal, but as a rule the front horn 
is decidedly longer. A horn of the common species measuring 
forty inches is considered long, while that of the square-mouthed 
sometimes reaches fifty inches; but such dimension records are 
glories of the past, for the square-mouthed is almost extinct, 
and the other species growing rare. 
A century ago the square-mouth was to be met with every- 
where in Africa south of the Zambezi, except in stony hills or on 
the waterless Kalahari Desert. It moved about in family par- 
ties and ate grass, pulling it off with the flattened lips and 
crushing it between the horny gums and big cheek teeth. 
“When either walking, trotting, or galloping,” Selous tells us, ‘‘the white 
thinoceros always carried its nose close to the ground. A calf always 
preceded its mother, and she appeared to guide it by holding the point of 
the horn on the little creature’s rump; and in all changes of pace, no matter 
how sudden, this position was always maintained. This rhinoceros was 
easily killed by a shot through the heart or through both lungs, but would 
travel very long distances, and, probably as a rule, ultimately recover from 
wounds in other parts of the body. In disposition they were sluggish 
and inoffensive animals, lying asleep in the shade of trees or bushes during 
the heat of the day, and coming to the water to drink at night, or often 
before sundown in parts of the country where they had not been much 
molested.” 
The other species differs little in form or color, but markedly 
in the shape of the lips, which are prolonged, with the upper 
pointed and overhanging the other; this upper lip is extensible, 
and may be curled around a bunch of twigs like a finger, thus 
grasping and tearing loose the food instead of biting it off. 
This apparatus suits the feeding habits of this rhinoceros, which 
never grazes, but subsists wholly by browsing on the leaves and 
twigs of the mimosa and other local bushes. When first known 
382 
