RHINO CER OSES. 
467 
Distribution. 
Habits. 
This rhinoceros is exclusively confined to India, and at the 
present day, according to Mr. Blanford, is almost restricted to the 
Assam plain, being rarely, if ever, found to the westward of the Tista River. 
Twenty or thirty years ago, it was, however, still common in the so-called terai 
country at the foot of the Sikhim Himalaya, while some years earlier it frequented 
the sub-Himalayan districts of Nipal, and ranged as far west as Rohilcund; while 
the writer last quoted believes that, about the year 1850, it also occurred in the 
grass-jungles of the Ganges valley at the north end of the Rahmahal Hills in 
Bengal. In the early part of the sixteenth century it ranged over the Punjab as far 
westwards as Peshawur; and since its fossilised remains are found in the North- 
West Provinces, the Narbada valley, and Madras, it may be inferred that the 
Indian rhinoceros formerly ranged over the greater part of Peninsular India, in 
localities suited to its habits. 
The Indian rhinoceros is a denizen of the great grass-jungles that 
cover such a large portion of the plains of India, and from this 
circumstance, coupled with the general resemblance of its molar teeth to those of 
the African Burchell’s rhinoceros, which is known to be a grass-eater, it may be 
assumed that its food is chiefly grass. Regarding the density and height of these 
jungles, General Kinloch writes that, “ year after year, in the short space of two or 
three months, these giant grasses shoot up to a height of from twenty to thirty feet, 
forming, with the wild cardamum, various other broad-leaved plants, and numerous 
creepers, a tangled cover which shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the 
buffalo, as effectually as a field of standing corn affords concealment to the 
partridge or the quail. I have seen a line of about fifteen elephants beating a 
strip of reeds not more than two hundred yards in width, and I could hardly 
see the grass shake. There was not as much commotion or indication of what 
was going on, as would be caused by a pack of beagles drawing a gorse-cover. 
Runs or tunnels among the high reeds, like magnified ‘ meuses 5 of hares and 
rabbits, show that the same paths through the thick jungle are generally made 
use of.” 
The rhinoceros chiefly frequents such portions of these grass-jungles as are on 
swampy ground; and although it is in general a solitary animal, the writer just 
quoted states that he has known half a dozen individuals roused from a belt of not 
more than half a mile in length by three hundred or four hundred yards in width. 
Like tapirs, the Indian rhinoceros is fond of a mud-bath. Although there are 
many stories extant as to its ferocity, and more especially its enmity to the 
elephant, it appears that this animal is generally quiet and harmless. Even when 
wounded, according to Mr. Blanford, it is but seldom that it charges home; but 
when it does attack, the sharp lower tusks are used much after the same manner 
as those of a wild boar. The only sound that this rhinoceros utters is a peculiar 
grunt, which is repeated at frequent intervals during excitement. The usual gait 
of this rhinoceros is a long swinging trot, but when disturbed, it can break into an 
awkward but very rapid gallop. Only a single calf is produced at a birth, but 
there is some uncertainty as to the length of the period of gestation, an old writer 
stating that it is nine months, while a more recent authority affirms that it is 
nearly or quite double as long. Since rhinoceroses, so far as we are aware, have 
