THE RHINOCEROS FAMILY. 



47 



The rhinoceroses have an acute sense 

 of hearing and a* keen scent. They avoid 

 man when they have come to know his power, 

 and in hunting these animals it is necessary 

 to observe carefully the direction of the wind 

 and to proceed without noise. But when 

 met unexpectedly or driven into a corner the 

 rhinoceros becomes terrible, and woe to the 

 sportsman who misses his aim! In the forests 

 which they inhabit they make paths for them- 

 selves through the densest underwood by 

 treading down everything in their way, and 

 although the hunters make use of these paths 

 they nevertheless carefully avoid meeting 

 with these stupid and passionate animals. 

 In captivity the rhinoceroses are sluggish, 

 unintelligent, and unsocial. They can scarcely 

 be rendered attached to their keepers, who 

 are obliged to behave with great caution 

 towards them. They astonish but do not 

 attract visitors. 



The rhinoceroses may be divided into two 

 groups. 



The Asiatic Rhinoceroses have permanent 

 incisors, and armour-plates on the hide sepa- 

 rated by deep folds. They have sometimes 

 one, sometimes two horns, 



In a full-page illustration (PI. XIX.) is 

 shown a one-horned species known from time 

 immemorial, the Indian Rhinoceros (Rh. 

 indicus), which is distributed over the region 

 from Bengal to Cochin- China. It attains a 

 length of 13 and a height of 6^ feet. The 

 horn, more than a foot and a half long, is 

 curved backwards and is rather slender; the 

 upper lip is very large. It has the most 

 complete armour of all, One plate covers 

 the back of the neck, another the shoulder, a 

 third the belly, a fourth the rump, and a fifth 

 the thigh. The hide is of a dirty-gray colour. 

 Pompey caused the first specimen which was 

 ever seen in Europe to be brought to Rome 

 in the year 61 B.C. It is eagerly pursued on 

 account of the tremendous ravages it commits 

 in plantations. Among the other eastern 

 species the Javan Rhinoceros (Rh. javanicus 



(sondaicus) ) is one-horned like the preceding 

 species; while that of Sumatra (Rh. sumat- 

 rensis), and another from Malacca, with tufts 

 of hair on the ears (Rh. lasiotis 1 ), have two 

 horns and form the transition to the African 

 species. 



The African Rhinoceroses have all two 

 horns and a thinner hide forming folds with- 

 out plates. Their incisors drop out. 



The Two-horned Rhinoceros (Rh. bicomis), 

 PI. XX., is quite as large as the Indian 

 species, but the head is shorter and carries 

 two horns, the foremost of which is the long- 

 est. The hide has a dark -brown colour 

 inclining to black. The animal formerly 

 inhabited the whole of the mainland of Africa 

 down to the Cape, but has been driven north- 

 wards towards the interior by the colonists 

 on account of the ravages it committed in 

 their plantations. It is regarded as much 

 more stupid and much wilder than the Indian 

 species. The hide has only small folds. 



[The Hon. W. H. Drummond, author of The 

 Large Game of South and South-east Africa, speaks 

 on several occasions of the ferocity of Rh. bicomis, 

 which he considers the most dangerous of all 

 African game. This ferocity, however, is exhibited 

 only towards man, and without doubt there is 

 good reason for its manifestation. " Their cun- 

 ning, 1 ' he writes, " is only equalled by their vicious- 

 ness. In most, if not in all cases, they will at once 

 charge on getting the wind of a human being, and 

 if they cross his track they will often follow it up 

 like a dog, making none of the puffing sounds 

 natural to them when angry, till they absolutely 

 see him. When wounded, and occasionally when 

 much disturbed, their spoor consists of parallel 

 straight lines, so that it is next to impossible to 

 overtake them without being discovered, and giving 

 them an opportunity of charging you from one 

 side. They will wait with the utmost patience 

 concealed in thick jungle, until you almost touch 

 them, and then rush out at you. When they do 

 catch an unfortunate being, they knock him down 

 and knead him with their feet, returning again and 

 again until nothing but a shapeless mass remains, 



1 This is a very rare animal. Only two examples are said to be as 

 yet known. See Nature, vol. xxix. p. 427. — Tr. 



