THE BLACK OR PREHENSILE -LIPPED RHINOCEROS 
have cropped to such an extent that they are altogether hidden by the 
grass, or on the fleshy leaves of a species of plant which grows amongst 
the grass. Although the point has not been quite satisfactorily cleared up, 
it is doubtful whether in these localities the black rhinoceros ever eats 
grass except by accident, and in South Africa these animals certainly 
never used to eat grass at all. 
Speaking generally, it may be said that the black rhinoceros is never 
found at a distance of more than a few miles away from water, as, generally 
speaking, it requires to drink regularly every day; but it has been reported 
that in certain parts of Somaliland it is able to subsist throughout the dry 
season on a species of aloe, the acrid juice of which affords it a sufficiency of 
liquid to enable it to live. Such a case is, however, certainly very exceptional, 
as these ponderous animals usually drink at least once every twenty -four 
hours, and in hot weather both in the evening and early morning. 
In the black rhinoceros the sense of smell is very acute, and these animals 
are also quick of hearing; but their eyesight is not at all good. They cer- 
tainly cannot make out the details of a stationary object, even when quite 
close to it, but I am inclined to think that they can see anything moving 
at some distance away from them. In South Africa I always found black 
rhinoceroses very inquisitive animals. When hunting elephants in the 
country between Matabeleland and the Zambesi, in the early ’seventies of 
the last century, I often passed with my native attendants close to where 
one of these animals was lying asleep. On hearing us, it would at once 
get up, and, if it had not got our wind, would come trotting towards us, 
often snorting loudly. I was never, however, charged by one of these 
rhinoceroses. They all of them turned and trotted off sooner or later. If, 
however, they got my wind, even when they were several hundred yards 
away, they always ran off. When hunting rhinoceroses on horseback, I 
have been charged and chased, both before and after I had fired at them. 
The inquisitive disposition and truculent appearance of the black rhino- 
ceros has, I think, undoubtedly often been taken as an indication of ill- 
temper and ferocity in all members of the species, which in many cases 
was probably quite undeserved. At any rate, in South Africa, thousands 
upon thousands of black rhinoceroses have been killed, and the species 
has been practically exterminated in that part of Africa, at an extra- 
ordinarily small cost in human life. Indeed, with the exception of one 
inexperienced sportsman who was killed a few years ago in Southern 
Rhodesia by a black rhinoceros which he had wounded and incautiously 
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