ITS NEAREST EXISTING RELATIONS 



59 



graphical range is nearly the same as that of the Javan 

 species, though not extending into Bengal ; but it lias 

 been found in Assam, Chittagong, Burmah, the Malay 

 Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. It is possible that 

 more than one species have been confounded under this 

 designation, as two animals now living in the London 

 Zoological Gardens present considerable differences of 

 form and colour. 



III. Atelodus. In the adults, the incisors are quite 

 rudimentary or entirely wanting. Nasal bones thick, 

 rounded, and truncated in front. Two horns, both well- 

 developed and in close contact with each other. Skin 

 thick but smooth, without any definite thickened plates 

 or permanent folds. 



The two well-marked species are peculiar to the 

 African continent : — 



1. The common two-horned rhinoceros (B. bicornis, 

 Linn.) is the smaller of the two, with a pointed, pre- 

 hensile upper lip. It ranges through the wooded and 

 watered districts of Africa, from Abyssinia in the north 

 to the Cape Colony, but its numbers are yearly diminish- 

 ing owing to the inroads of European civilisation, and 

 especially to the persecutions of English sportsmen. It 

 feeds exclusively upon leaves and branches of bushes 

 and small trees, and chiefly frequents the sides of wood- 

 clad rugged hills. Specimens in which the posterior 

 horn has attained a length as great as, or greater than, 



