X CHARACTERS OF RHINOCEKOS 253 



largely to escape the Tiger, its most formidable foe in those regions 

 of the world. Its quickness of senses enables it also to slip away 

 with rapidity. It can proceed at a great pace when disturbed, 

 and can readily push its way through obstacles. The young 

 animal, like that of the American species, is dark brown with 

 yellowish spots. It is stated by Mr. H. N. Eidley that the 

 young animal lies during the hot part of the day xmder bushes, 

 in which situation " its coat is so exactly like a patch of ground 

 Hecked with sunlight that it is quite invisible." It is interesting 

 to note that here, as with some other animals, it is the young 

 that are especially protected by such mechanisms. Moreover, 

 some of the spots are round and some are more elongated, so 

 that the resemblance to spots of sunlight which come in a direct 

 and in a slanting direction is greatly increased. Even the 

 colours of the adult are not so conspicuous when it is in its 

 native haunts as might be supposed. The breaking up of the 

 ground colour into tracts of two different colours prevent it from 

 striking the eye so plainly as if it were of one colour through- 

 out. " "When lying down during the day it exactly resembles a 

 grey boulder, and as it often lives near the rocky streams of the 

 hill jungles, it is really-nearly as invisible then as it was when it 

 was speckled."^ 



Fam. 3. Rhinocerotidae. — This family is to be distinguished 

 from the preceding by a number of characters, which though not 

 universal are general. In the first place, there are commonly 

 horns, or a horn, consisting of what appears to be an agglomera- 

 tion of hair-like structures fixed upon a roughened patch of bone 

 on the surface of the nasals. The incisors are diminished or 

 defective, and the upper canines are often wanting. The molars 

 and premolars are alike. The fore-feet are four- or three-toed, 

 but are functionally tridactyle ; the hind-feet are three-toed. 

 The skeleton in this family is massive, and the limbs relatively 

 short. The skull, as in the Tapirs, has a confluent orbit and 

 temporal fossa. The upper lip is generally more or less pre- 

 hensile ; the body is as a rule — to which the Pleistocene Hairy 

 Ehinoceros is of course an exception — rather sparsely covered 

 with hair. In this feature the Ehinocerotidae contrast both with 

 the Tapiridae and the Equidae. The family in reality contains 

 but one existing genus, though three have been instituted, viz. 



^ Natural Science, vi. 1895, p. 161. 



