405 
ch. xiv] A WOUNDED RHINO 
Museum in New York, and a head for the National 
Collection of Heads and Horns which was started by 
Mr. Hornaday, the director of the Bronx Zoological 
Park. Moreover, Kermit and Loring desired to get 
some photos of the animals while they were alive. 
Things did not go well this time, however. The 
rhinos saw us before either Kermit or Loring could get 
a good picture. As they wheeled I fired hastily into 
the chest of one, but not quite in the middle, and away 
they dashed—for they do not seem as truculent as the 
common rhino. We followed them. After an hour 
the trails separated ; Cuninghame went on one, but 
failed to overtake the animal, and we did not see him 
until we reached camp late that afternoon. 
Meanwhile, our own gun-bearers followed the bloody 
spoor of the rhino I had hit, Kermit and I close behind, 
and Loring with us. The rhino had gone straight off 
at a gallop, and the trail offered little difficulty, so we 
walked fast. A couple of hours passed. The sun was 
now high and the heat intense as we walked over the 
burnt ground. The scattered trees bore such scanty 
foliage as to cast hardly any shade. The rhino galloped 
strongly and without faltering ; but there was a good 
deal of blood on the trail. At last, after we had gone 
seven or eight miles, Kiboko the skinner, who was 
acting as my gun-bearer, pointed toward a small thorn- 
tree ; and beside it I saw the rhino standing with 
drooping head. It had been fatally hit, and if undis¬ 
turbed would probably never have moved from where 
it was standing ; and we finished it off forthwith. It 
was a cow, and before dying it ran round and round in 
a circle, in the manner of the common rhino. 
Loring stayed to superintend the skinning and bring¬ 
ing in of the head and feet and slabs of hide. Mean- 
