170 
THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 
of human beings, it is necessary for the hunters to use the greatest 
circumspection when they approach it, whether to avoid or to kill, as 
in the one case it may probably be taken with a sudden fit of fury, and 
charge at them, or in the other case, it may take the alarm and escape. 
The upper lip is used by the rhinoceros as an instrument to seize 
or hold things fast, or with which it can grasp the herbage on which 
it feeds, or pick up small fruit from the ground. A tame rhinoceros 
in the Zoological Gardens will take a piece of bun or biscuit from a 
visitor’s hand by means of the flexible upper lip. 
Elephant and Rhinoceros in Battle. —As we have spoken 
of the three great pachyderms and how each is so strong and mighty 
by itself—what would they do, were they to come together to dispute 
each other’s path? As you know, the mighty pachyderms of Africa, 
the elephant, the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, are pure vege¬ 
tarians, and hence demand a large pasture-land uninhabited by other 
animals. When once they find such a place they guard it with jealous 
care from the intrusion of others. The hippopotamus has a great 
advantage over the elephant and rhinoceros in this respect, because 
he can get sufficient food from the plants which grow in the rivers and 
marshes. Other animals which might seek the same food flee at sight 
of this wild beast and leave him unmolested. The elephant and 
rhinoceros, on the other hand, are often compelled, by scarcity of food 
and other causes, to change their homes. It is a well-known fact that 
the elephant starts on long wanderings in quest of new pastures, 
usually traveling in parties of from six to fifteen. The rhinoceros 
seeks green marshy land in the same way, but with this difference, 
that, with the exception of the mating season, this grim old beast lives 
by himself a sort of hermit life. Now, when two such mighty and 
powerful animals as the elephant and the rhinoceros meet one another 
in their journeyings, one can imagine what a fierce battle is sure to 
follow. The rhinoceros usually begins with an attack upon his huge 
adversary. The elephant is much stronger and larger than the rhinoc¬ 
eros, but the latter, in spite of his clumsy body, is very quick in his 
movements, and often runs under the elephant, severely wounding him 
in the stomach with his horn. When these two animals fall upon each 
other in this hostile manner, the victorious one is usually the one which 
