640 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
but such teeth persist as mere rudiments beneath the gums 
and never become functional. A more permanent feature 
of this sort is the persistence of the first premolar through¬ 
out life. The genus to-day is represented by a single 
species, bicornis , and is confined to Ethiopian Africa, but 
in the Pleistocene it occurred as far north as Algeria in the 
Mediterranean region. Besides the Pleistocene species of 
Algeria another has been described from Northern Rhodesia 
by Chubb, which is smaller but closely allied to the living 
bicornis. Scott described some cheek-teeth of a rhinoceros 
from the Pliocene of Natal, which he referred to a new 
species, but they are quite indistinguishable in size or shape 
from those of bicornis. It is evident from these discoveries 
that bicornis has long been an inhabitant of Africa and 
doubtless is a form which originated on that continent. 
The black or common African rhinoceros was fairly 
plentiful in most parts of East Africa which we visited; there 
were stretches of territory, however, in which we found 
none, as, for instance, on the Uasin Gishu. Why the species 
was absent from these places we cannot say, for elsewhere 
we came across them in all kinds of country. They were 
found in the dense, rather cold forests of Mount Kenia; they 
were found in the forest country near Kijabe; they were 
common in the thick thorn scrub and dry bush jungle in 
many places; and in the Sotik and along the Guaso Nyiro 
of the north, as well as here and there elsewhere, they were 
to be seen every day as we journeyed and hunted across the 
bare, open plains. “Plentiful” is, of course, a relative term; 
there were thousands of zebras, hartebeests, gazelles, and 
other buck for every one or two rhinos; it is doubtful 
whether we saw more than two or three hundred black 
rhinos all told, and we do not remember seeing more than 
half a dozen or so on any one day. Probably they were 
most abundant in the brush and forest on the lower slopes 
