ON THE BONES OP THE RHINOCEROS. 427 



middle toe is in particular extremely short. The latter are fluted like 

 those of the horse's hoof. The middle one is in the form of a crescent, 

 the others in that of a half crescent, the point of which is towards the 

 edge of the foot. 



Article II. 

 On the Different Living Rhinoceroses, and their Distinctive Characters. 



The difficulty of seeing different rhinoceroses, and particularly of 

 seeing them together, for a long time retarded the knowledge of the 

 real characters of their species. These animals have been rare at all 

 times. Aristotle makes no mention of them at all, unless it be his 

 Indian ass, of which he says but one word. The first of which mention 

 is made in history was that which appeared at the celebrated fete of 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus, and which was made to go last of the strange 

 animals, apparently as being the most curious and most rare; it was 

 from Ethiopia (Atheneus, lib. v, p. 201, ed. 1597). The first seen in 

 Europe appeared at the games of Pompey ; Pliny says that it had but 

 one horn, and that this was the ordinary number (lib. viii, cap. 20). 

 Augustus had another killed in the Circus, with a hippopotamus, when 

 he triumphed over Cleopatra. Dion Cassius, who relates this fact 

 (lib.li), seems to intimate that it was a unicorn : Cornu autem ex ipso 

 naso prominens habet. He adds, according to the authority of Pliny, 

 in the passage just cited, that they were the first of the two species of 

 quadrupeds seen at Rome : tunc primum et visi Roma, et occisi sunt. 



Strabo (lib. xvi, p. 1 120, Almel.) describes very exactly a one-horned 

 rhinoceros, which he saw at Alexandria ; he even speaks of the folds 

 of his skin. 



Pausanias, on his part, describes in detail the position of the two 

 horns in the two-horned rhinoceros, which he calls the Ethiopian bull, 

 (lib. ix, p. 572 ed. Hanov., 1613). 



Two of this latter species appeared at Rome, in the reign of Domi- 

 tian, which were engraved on some medals of this emperor, and formed 

 the subject of some Epigram of Martial, which the moderns were for a 

 long time very much perplexed to explain, because there was mention 

 made of the two horns. Schrceck explained it, however, since 1688, 

 in the Ephemerides of the Curiosi Natura?. 



Antonine, Heliogabalus, and Gordian III., also showed some rhino- 

 ceroses*. 



Cosmas speaks expressly of that of Ethiopia, as having two horns, 

 and being able to move themf. 



The antients then had some knowledge of these animals, which was 

 for a long time not possessed by the moderns. 



The first seen by the latter was of the one-horned species. It had 

 been sent from India to Emmanuel, King of Portugal, in the year 1513. 

 This king made a present of it to the pope ; but the animal having had 

 a fit of madness on the voyage, destroyed the vessel which conveyed it. 



* For Antonine, See Jul. Capitol., Antonin. Pius, cap. x. But some editors put 

 strepsicerotas instead of rhinocerotes. For Heliogabalus, Lamprid., c.xxviii; for Gor- 

 dian, Jul. Capit., Gord., c. xxxiii. 



t Ap. Montfauc, Collect, patr. torn, ii, p. 334. 



