248 ZOOLOGY. 



it is impossible to escape from them even on horseback 

 (I doubt this), but they are easily eluded by turning, as 

 they are not quick of sight, and, like most mammalia, 

 they never look for enemies in trees ; consequently a man 

 only two or three feet from the ground will remain 

 unnoticed by them if he keeps quiet. They are said 

 to be extremely savage, and unquestionably the first 

 one killed by us charged most viciously. The same is 

 related of the black rhinoceros by all African sportsmen. 

 I cannot help thinking, however, that their savage dis- 

 position has been rather exaggerated. When on the 

 Anseba, we heard numerous accounts of people having 

 been killed by lions, panthers, and elephants ; but Mr. 

 Miinzinger told me that, during his long experience 

 in the country, he never knew of any one having 

 been killed by a rhinoceros, although he himself had 

 had di narrow escape when charged by an animal he 

 had wounded. 



The majority of the animals seen by our party 

 were in pairs, an old female and a nearly full- 

 grown cub. On one occasion Captain Mockler saw 

 four together. 



The only sound we heard them make was the snort 

 of alarm or rage, so frequently referred to by Sir Samuel 

 Baker in his description of the rhinoceroses met with 

 by him on the Nile Tributaries in Western Abyssinia. 

 It is a most peculiar noise, resembling that made by a 

 locomotive more than any sound made by an animal 

 with which I am acquainted. 



The following are the dimensions of the larger rhino- 



