NO. I THE WHITE RHINOCEROS HELLER • 45 



an average they were undoubtedly larger, and with bigger horns, yet 

 there was in both respects overlapping, the bigger prehensile-lipped 

 rhinos equalling or surpassing the smaller individuals of the other 

 kind. The huge, square-muzzled head, and the hump, gave the Lado 

 rhino an utterly different look, however, and its habits are also in some 

 important respects different. Our gun-bearers were all East Afri- 

 cans, who had never before been in the Lado. They had been very 

 sceptical when told that the rhinos were different from those they 

 knew, remarking that ' all rhinos were the same ' ; and the first sight 

 of the spoor merely confirmed them in their belief ; but they at once 

 recognized the dung as being different ; and when the first animal 

 was down they examined it eagerly and proclaimed it as a rhinoceros, 

 with a hump, like their own native cattle, and with the mouth of a 

 hippopotamus. 



" A couple hours later, as we followed an elephant path, we came 

 to where it was crossed by the spoor of two rhino. Our gun-bearers 

 took up the trail, over the burnt ground, while Kermit and I followed 

 immediately behind them. The trail wound about, and was not 

 always easy to disentangle, but after a mile or two we saw the beasts. 

 They were standing among bushes and patches of rank, unburned 

 grass ; it was ten o'clock, and they were evidently preparing to lie 

 down for the day. As they stood they kept twitching their big ears ; 

 both rhino and elephant are perpetually annoyed, as are most game, 

 by biting flies, large and small. We got up very close, Kermit with his 

 camera and I with the heavy rifle. Too little is known of these north- 

 ern square-mouthed rhino for us to be sure that they were not linger- 

 ing slowly toward extinction ; and, lest this should be the case, we 

 were not willing to kill any merely for trophies ; while, on the other 

 hand, we deemed it really important to get good groups for the 

 National Museum in Washington and the American Museum in New 

 York, and a head for the National Collection of Heads and Horns 

 which was started by Mr. Hornaday, the director of the Bronx 

 Zoological Park. The rhinos saw us before either Kermit or Loring 

 could get a good picture. As they wheeled I fired hastily into the chest 

 of one, but not quite in the middle, and away they dashed — for they 

 do not seem as truculent as the common rhino. We followed them. 

 After an hour the trails separated ; Cunninghame went on one, but 

 failed to overtake the animal, and we did not see him until we reached 

 camp late that afternoon. 



" Meanwhile our own gun-bearers followed the bloody spoor of 



