8514 



Quadrupeds. 



the identical species is found in the Sundarbans and also (formerly, at 

 least) in the Rajmahal Hills at all elevations ; but it has hitherto been 

 universally mistaken for R. indicus, a species which may inhabit the 

 same localities, — only that now remains to be ascertained, as also if 

 R. sondaicus extends its range to the region tenanted by the other. 

 All evidence at present attainable points to the opposite conclusion. 



So long ago as in 1838 the late Dr. Heifer remarked, that "The 

 Tenesserim provinces seem to be a convenient place for this genus ; 

 for I dare to pronounce almost positively," he then wrote, " that the 

 three known Asiatic species occur within their range ; R. indicus 

 being found in the northern part of these provinces, in that high range 

 bordering on Zimmay called the Elephant Tail Mountain ; R. sondai- 

 cus, on the contrary, occupies the southernmost parts ; while the two- 

 horned R. sumatranus is to be found throughout the extent of the 

 territories from the 17th to the 10th degree of latitude. In character 

 R. sondaicus seems to be the mildest and can be easily domesticated, 

 the powerful Indian rhinoceros is the shyest, and the double-horned is 

 the wildest." Mason remarked that " the common single-horned 

 rhinoceros is very abundant. The double-horned is not uncommon in 

 the southern provinces;" and then he alludes to the alleged " fire- 

 eater" of the Burmans, supposing that to be R. sondaicus as dis- 

 tinguished from the common single-horned kind, which he thought 

 was R. indicus. Very decidedly I consider that the alleged existence 

 of the great sub-Himalayan R. indicus in Bengal, the Indo-Chinese 

 region, and Malayan peninsula, remains to be proved ; the broad and 

 narrow 7 types of skull of R. sondaicus having, I suspect, been mistaken 

 for R. indicus and R. sondaicus respectively. That the real species 

 denoted by these names was so early discriminated, I opine, is mainly 

 due to the accident of R. sondaicus having been first obtained in 

 Java, which induced the suspicion of its being probably different 

 from the only then recognised continental species inhabiting Upper 

 India; likewise to the accident of the Paris Museum containing a 

 particularly fine skull of the true R. indicus, which, as before 

 remarked, is probably that of the individual figured in the 6 Menagerie 

 du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle.' 



The Museum of the Calcutta Medical College contains, as we have 

 seen, three noble skulls of R. indicus, besides that with the entire 

 skeleton of an old female, both the broad and narrow types of skull 

 being represented, but it has neither R. sondaicus nor R. sumatranus. 

 The Society's Museum still w T ants the first species, but is tolerably 

 well supplied with the two others. Sir T. H. Maddock, in 1842, pre- 



