174 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
her calf and advanced toward him in distinctly bellicose 
style; then she recognized him, her calf trotted up, and 
the three animals stood together, tossing their heads, and 
evidently trying to make out what was near them. But 
we were down wind, and they do not see well, with their 
little twinkling pig’s eyes. We were anxious not to be 
charged by the cow and calf, as her horn was very poor, and 
it would have been unpleasant to be obliged to shoot her. 
and so we drew off. 
Next day, when Kermit and I were oiit alone with our 
gun-bearers we saw another rhino, a bull, with a stubby 
horn. This rhino, like the others of the neighborhood, was 
enjoying his noonday rest in the open, miles from cover; 
“Look at him,” said Kermit, “standing there in the middle 
of the African plain, deep in prehistoric thought.” Indeed 
the rhinoceros does seem like a survival from the elder 
world that has vanished; he was in place in the pliocene; 
he would not have been out of place in the miocene; but 
nowadays he can only exist at all in regions that have lagged 
behind, while the rest of the world, for good or for evil, has 
gone forward. Like other beasts rhinos differ in habits in 
different places. This prehensile-lipped species is every¬ 
where a browser, feeding on the twigs and leaves of the 
bushes and low trees; but in their stomachs I have found 
long grass stems mixed with the twig tips and leaves of 
stunted bush. In some regions they live entirely in rather 
thick bush; whereas on the plains over which we were 
hunting the animals haunted the open by preference, feed¬ 
ing through thin bush, where they were visible miles away, 
and usually taking their rest, either standing or lying, out 
on the absolutely bare plains. They drank at the small 
