326 WILD ANIMALS. 



In fact, until a comparatively short time ago, it was the only 

 species with which Europeans were acquainted. 



It inhabits the regions of the East Indies beyond the Ganges, 

 and the open valley along the base of the Himalayas from Bhotan to 

 Nepal, and is found in the province of Assam along the valley of 

 the Brahmapootra ; it is also reported as having been seen in 

 Bengal, Siam, and Cochin China. These animals appear in 

 former times, according to Kinlock, " to have inhabited the Terai 

 throughout its whole length, but it has been gradually driven 

 eastwards, until at the present day the Nepal Terai is its western 

 limit. Even there its numbers have been much thinned, and it 

 has lately been so highly prized that it has been reserved as 

 Royal game ; the late Sir Jung Bahddoor permitting no one to 

 shoot it but himself. 



" Many rhinoceros have been shot within the last few years in 

 the vicinity of Julpigoree; but there, partly owing to being 

 constantly hunted, and partly owing to the clearance of large 

 tracts for tea cultivation, they are rapidly becoming scarcer, and 

 the sportsman must travel still further east before he finds them 

 at all plentiful. In the eastern portion of the Bhiitan Dooars, 

 and in Assam, wherever there are heavy reed jungles on the banks 

 of rivers or on the margin of swamps, rhinoceros may be met 

 with, and occasionally several congregate in one covert. I have 

 myself known six to be roused in a belt of ' nul ' not more than 

 half a mile long and three or four hundred yards wide." 



This species has a single horn on the nose, which is pointed and 

 slightly curved backwards. This horn sometimes measures two 

 feet in length, but the average size it attains is some inches less. 



The skin of the Indian rhinoceros constitutes one of its most 

 striking peculiarities. It is very dense and hard, so much so that 

 it has not pliancy enough to permit the movements of the animal, 

 but has to be in a manner jointed by means of folds behind the 

 shoulders, in front of the thighs on the limbs, and these creases 

 are very ample around the neck where it joins the head. These 

 massive folds and the hard appearance of the hide were so 

 frequently described as the well-adjusted pieces of a complete suit 

 of armour, that nearly all the ancient illustrations of the animal. 



