African Game Trails 
as to the cause of the disturbance. If Heller 
had not had his hands full with the giraffes 
I might have shot the bull rhino; but his 
horn and bulk of body, though fair, were 
not remarkable, and I did not molest him. 
He went toward the cow, which left her calf 
and advanced toward him in distinctly bel¬ 
licose 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 out 
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 
everywhere 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, 
feeding through thin bush, where they were 
visible miles away, and usually taking their 
rest, either standing or lying, out on the ab¬ 
solutely bare plains. They drank at the 
small shallow rain pools, seemingly once 
every twenty-four hours; and I saw one 
going to water at noon, and others just at 
dark; and their hours for feeding and rest¬ 
ing were also irregular, though they were 
apt to lie down or stand motionless during 
the middle of the day. Doubtless in very 
hot weather they prefer to rest under a tree; 
but we were hunting in cool weather, dur- 
