THE WHITE RHINOCEROS 



By EDMUND HELLER 

 Naturalist, Smithsonian African Expedition 



(With Thirty-one Plates) 

 PREFACE 



The white rhinoceros is so imperfectly known that it has been 

 thought advisable to publish, in advance of the complete report of the 

 expedition, the results obtained from the study of the specimens of 

 this species collected in the Sudan by the Smithsonian African Expe- 

 dition, under the direction of Colonel Roosevelt, 1 in order to make 

 this material available to zoologists generally, a series of photographs 

 of the skull of each specimen collected has been added to the paper. 

 This has been found necessary not only to illustrate the text, but in 

 order to fill one of the gaps in the literature pertaining to African 

 mammalogy. Up to the present time no photograph of a perfect skull 

 of this rhinoceros has appeared in print. There have been a few 

 figures published, but none showing structural details well. The 

 present publication will do much to remedy this want, and will also, 

 it is hoped, serve to put the species on a more logical systematic basis. 

 In the present paper considerable emphasis has been placed on the 

 really great structural differences which exist between the white rhi- 

 noceros and the black, with which it has hitherto been generically con- 

 founded under the name Diceros. 



The chief zoological value of the present series is due to the various 

 ages which they represent. They range from a foetal specimen to old 

 adults, and show fairly well the changes undergone in form and 

 structure from youth to old age. It has been possible with this large 

 series of skulls to determine the changes of form and structure in the 

 skull which are due to age and sex. One of the results of this study 

 has shown the characters of shorter and broader nasal boss assigned 

 by Lydekker to the Nile race to be inconstant and of no systematic 

 value. The discovery, however, of a substantial difference in dorsal 

 outline has led to the retention of the Nile race. 



1 This paper is the eighteenth dealing with the results of the Smithsonian 

 African Expedition. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 61, No. 1 



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