THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS 



(Rhinoceros unicornis) 



ALTHOUGH formerly ranging a considerable way down the peninsula, the 

 great Indian rhinoceros, as this species should properly be called, is more 

 or less completely restricted to Nepal and the country east of the Tista 

 valley, especially the plain of Assam and Kuch-Behar. Here the mighty beast, 

 which stands over $\ feet in height at the shoulder, dwells in the tall grass-jungles, 

 where it is as completely concealed as is a rabbit in a meadow ready for mowing. 

 The rhinoceroses, in fact, make for themselves in this giant grass, tunnels, or 

 " runs," in which they move from place to place perfectly secure from observation, 

 and likewise protected from the direct rays of the sun ; and it appears that, except 

 to drink, they seldom leave this wonderful covert. To attempt to shoot such 

 enormous beasts on foot in jungle of this description, where escape from the beaten 

 track is well-nigh impossible, would be little short of madness ; and the Indian 

 rhinoceros is therefore always hunted on elephants. 



In old books on Indian sports the rhinoceros is depicted as charging the 

 elephants, and attempting to spear them with its horn, if not in the act of goring 

 their bodies. This is, however, erroneous, as none of the three named species of 

 Asiatic rhinoceros use their horns in this manner, but employ for offence their 

 sharp, triangular lower tusks, with which they make lateral thrusts and lunges 

 after the manner of a wild boar. African rhinoceroses, on the other hand, have no 

 tusks, and consequently have to rely on their horns — always two in number — for 

 both attack and defence. 



It must not, however, be assumed from this that the absence of tusks is 

 compensated by the development of two horns, for there is one Asiatic species, 

 commonly known as the Sumatran rhinoceros {Rhinoceros sumatrensis), which has 

 two horns combined with lower tusks ; this species thus being the most formidably 

 armed member of the whole group. This so-called Sumatran rhinoceros also occurs 

 in some of the eastern districts of India, as does likewise the third Asiatic species, 

 commonly known as the Javan rhinoceros {R. sondaicus), which resembles the great 

 Indian species in carrying but one horn. 



A satisfactory and easily recognised distinction between the rhinoceroses of 

 south-eastern Asia and the two African species is afforded by the circumstance 

 that while in the former the hide is thrown into a number of deep folds dividing 

 it into separate areas, in the latter these folds are more or less lacking, so that the 

 skin is comparatively smooth like that of a pig. The shape of the skin-folds serves 

 to distinguish the species forming the subject of the plate from the other one-horned 



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