132 a hand-book of the management of animals 



Length of life in captivity. 

 A female has been living in the garden since 1882. 



(167) THE SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS. 

 (RHINOCEKOS SUMATKENSIS-CW.) 



Ears filled inside with short bristly hairs; margin not fringed 

 with drooping hairs ; the upper lip is almost rounded ; the skin is 

 coarse and dark, and the hairs short, bristly, and less abundant. 



Hab. — The Malay peninsula and the islands of Sumatra, Java, 

 and Borneo. 



Length of life in captivity. 



From 1882 to 1889. 



Observations. — Zoologists are yet undecided as to whether these 

 animals (R. lasiotis and R. sumatrensis) belong to different species, or 

 are mere varieties of the same ; and it would not, therefore, be out of 

 place to indicate the several points of distinctions which these animals 

 present in their external characters when examined side by side. 



The hairy-eared rhinoceros is bulkier in form than the Sumatran 

 species, and has much heavier fore- quarters ; besides, an adult lasiotis 

 stands higher at the shoulder than an adult sumatrensis. A young 

 female lasiotis and a pair of adult sumatrensis were acquired in 1882, 

 and it was observed after about a year that the former stood higher at 

 the shoulder than the male sumatrensis. 



The ears of the lasiotis are shorter and placed further apart than 

 in sumatrensis ; the skull of the former is broader, that of the latter 

 narrow. 



The tail of the lasiotis is shorter and well tufted ; that of the 

 sumatrensis longer and covered with scanty, bristly, and straggling 

 hairs. 



The skin of the nape of the lasiotis is smooth, that of the 

 sumatrensis slightly corrugated. In the former the neck fold com- 

 mences from behind and below the level of the ear and passes down- 

 ward to meet its fellow of the opposite side, but does not form a 

 pendulous knot below ; in the sumatrensis the neck fold terminates in 

 a pendulous knot at the front neck. 



Treatment in health. 



Housing. — For the health, growth, and comfort of a rhinoceros, it 

 must have water and mud to bathe and wallow in, ample shade to pro- 

 tect it from sun, and a large piece of dry ground as a promenade. An 

 enclosure 230 feet long by 116 feet broad, with a tank 160 feet in length 

 and 50 feet in breadth, well shaded by trees and clumps of bamboos, has 

 been found to answer for a couple of pair of rhinoceroses. The fence may 

 be built of iron rail uprights, about 5 feet high, with 1 inch iron rods 



