182 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
a bullet from his Winchester behind her shoulder; for it is 
never safe to take chances with a rhino; and we shot the 
calf, which when dying uttered a screaming whistle, al¬ 
most like that of a small steam-engine. In a few seconds 
both fell, and we walked up to them, examined them, and 
then continued our ride, sending in a messenger to bring 
Cuninghame, Heller, and an ox wagon to the carcasses. 
The stomach of this rhino contained some grass stems 
and blades, some leaves and twig tips of bushes, but chiefly 
the thick, thorny, fleshy leaves of a kind of euphorbia. As 
the juice of the euphorbia’s cactus-like leaves is acrid 
enough to blister—not to speak of the thorns—this suffices 
to show what a rhino’s palate regards as agreeably stimu¬ 
lating. This species of rhino, by the way, affords a curious 
illustration of how blind many men who live much of their 
lives outdoors may be to facts which stare them in the 
face. For years most South African hunters, and most 
naturalists, believed in the existence of two species of pre¬ 
hensile-lipped, or so-called “black,” rhinoceros: one with 
the front horn much the longer, one with the rear horn at 
least equal to the front. It was Selous, a singularly clear¬ 
sighted and keen observer, who first proved conclusively 
that the difference was purely imaginary. Now, the curi¬ 
ous thing is that these experienced hunters usually attrib¬ 
uted entirely different temperaments to these two imagi¬ 
nary species. The first kind, that with the long front horn, 
they described as a miracle of dangerous ferocity, and the 
second as comparatively mild and inoffensive; and these 
veterans (Drummond is an instance) persuaded them¬ 
selves that this was true, although they were writing in each 
case of identically the same animal! 
