56 RHINO 
by missile weapons of all kinds. The flesh is not unlike 
pork; but of a coarser grain, and a stronger taste. 
The species we have described is usually supposed to 
represent the unicorn of Scripture; it would appear, however, 
that another animal exists far more closely resembling the 
common idea of a unicorn, than the R. unicornis. The 
annexedengraving, fig. 2, represents the head of this animal, 
which was seen by Mr. Campbell, at Mashow, in South 
Africa, the skull of which is now in the Museum of the Mis¬ 
sionary Society in London. When shot it was called a rhi¬ 
noceros, but the head being brought in, it Was found to be 
different from all the others that had been killed. 
“ The common African rhinoceros,” continues Campbell, 
“ has a crooked horn resembling a cock’s spur, which rises 
about nine or ten inches above the nose and inclines back¬ 
wards ; immediately behind this is a short thick horn; but the 
head they brought had a straight horn projecting three feet 
from the forehead, about ten inches above the tip of the nose. 
The projection of this great horn very much resembles that of 
the fanciful unicorn in the British arms. It has a small thick 
horny substance, eight inches long, immediately behind it, 
which can hardly be observed on the animal at the distance 
of a hundred yards, and seems to be designed for keeping fast 
that which is penetrated by the long horn ; so that this species 
of rhinoceros must appear really like a unicorn when running 
in the field. The head resembled in size a nine-gallon cask, 
and measures three feet from the mouth to the ear, and being 
much larger than that of the one with the crooked horn, and 
which measured eleven feet in length, the animal itself must 
have been still larger and more formidable. From its weight, 
and the position of the horn, it appears capable of overcom¬ 
ing any creature hitherto known. Hardly any of the natives 
took the smallest notice of the head, but treated it as a thing 
familiar to them. As the entire horn is perfectly solid, the 
natives, I afterwards heard, made from one horn four han¬ 
dles for their battle-axes. Our people wounded another, 
which they reported to be much larger.” 
It has been further stated in No. XV. of the Missionary 
Sketches, that “ the head measured from the ears to the nose 
three feet: the length of the horn, which is nearly black, is 
also three feet, projecting from the forehead, about ten inches 
above the nose. There is a small horny projection, of a 
conical shape, measuring about eight inches, immediately 
behind the great horn, apparently designed for keeping fast 
or steady whatever is penetrated by the great horn. This 
projection is scarcely observed at a very little distance. The 
animal is not carnivorous, but chiefly feeds on grass and 
bushes.” 
Mr. Campbell was very desirous to obtain as’ adequate 
an idea as possible of the bulk of the animal killed near 
Mashow, and with this view questioned his Hottentots, who 
described it as being much larger than the Rhinoceros, and 
equal in size to three oxen or four horses. 
2. Rhinoceros bicornis : in size, form, and manners, and 
almost all other characteristics, this species appears nearly 
allied to the former. The only, or at least the chief, distinc¬ 
tion is an additional horn. The former rhinoceros bears 
only one horn on his nose; but this species are furnished with 
two, one standing strait behind the other. We know not 
whether the unicorn and the bicorn copulate and breed to¬ 
gether indifferently. It has even been doubted, whether all 
animals of the rhinoceros character may not naturally possess 
two horns; and an unicorn appear only in consequence of 
an accidental loss. 
The anterior is always larger than the posterior. Both 
horns are universally of a conical shape, with the tips reclin¬ 
ing somewhat backwards. "The posterior horn of an old 
rhinoceros has always the appearance of being worn away. 
Dr. Sparrman relates, from the information of the Hottentots 
and colonists at the Cape, that the horns are remarkably loose 
on the nose of the living rhinoceros; he moves them back¬ 
wards and forwards at pleasure ; as he walks carelessly, they 
shake and clatter against each other; and in digging roots, 
which he eats, as well as prickly shrubs, he reclines the 
anterior horn, and, employing only the posterior, thus wears 
C E R O S. 
the latter by degrees to a stump, while the former remains 
entirely uninjured. The tips of both horns are slightly bent 
backwards: their texture seems composed of parallel homy 
fibres: near the root, the surface of the horn is rough and 
unequal; towards the point smooth and plain like the horns 
of oxen. The anterior horn of a rhinoceros of moderate 
size, shot by Dr Sparrman, was a foot in length, and five 
inches in circumference at the base. The anterior horn of a 
larger rhinoceros was a foot and an half in length, and seven 
inches in circumference at the base: the posterior horn stands 
rather on the forehead than on the snout. 
Dissecting the smaller rhinoceros, Sparrman found its 
stomach filled with masticated roots and branches of trees, 
and succulent plants, several of which seemed to be prickly. 
It had no fore-teeth; but the lips were of so hard a texture, 
that they might easily serve to perform all the same functions 
as the fore-teeth of other animals. The jaws of a full-grown 
rhinoceros are furnished with four-and-twenty grinders: 
the anterior part of the os palati exhibits a tooth-like process; 
but so distant from the lower jaw, that it can scarcely serve 
any of the purposes of a tooth: the skin is hard and thick in 
proportion to the bulk of the animal; but not proof against 
the impression even of blunt-pointed weapons: on the feet, 
the skin is thicker, and more callous than on the other parts: 
the skin is not gathered into folds, as that of the former 
species: it is smooth and flesh-coloured between the legs; a 
few stiff bristles are thinly scattered over the other parts of the 
body; they are most numerous about the ears and the end of 
the tail: the skin is of a deep cinereous grey colour; and 
numerous warts appear all over the body : the foot is divided 
into three parts, the hoofs of which project but a little beyond 
the leg. Such, according to Dr. Sparrman, are the more 
remarkable external characteristics of the rhinoceros with two 
horns. 
Mr. Bruce represents the rhinoceros of Abyssinia as having 
his skin gathered into folds, on the neck, the shoulders, the 
buttocks, and some other parts of his body. His mouth he 
describes as furnished with twenty-eight teeth: the upper lip 
he allows to be remarkably large : the skin is ahvays/smooth, 
except when flies and other troublesome insects have broken 
it, so as to produce pustules; a distress to which the animal 
is very liable: the tongue of the young rhinoceros is indeed 
smooth ; but, as he grows old, it becomes very rough : the 
anterior horn is round, and bends slightly back at the point} 
behind it appears the second, which is flat and straight; and 
behind this have been observed the rudiments of a third. 
It is only in Africa that this animal has been discovered in 
modern times. In the southern parts' of the African conti¬ 
nent, the species are well known. The Europeans, who have 
penetrated into Abyssinia, represent them as not less numer¬ 
ous in that country. From an epigram of Martial, and some 
coins of Domitian, we learn that the rhinoceros with two 
horns was not unknown to the Romans. 
The manners and economy of this species differ but little 
from those of the last. But the bicom has been more accu¬ 
rately observed than the unicorn. He resides almost con¬ 
stantly in deep forests: he never eats hay or grass: large 
succulent plants, prickly shrubs, the branches, and even the 
trunks, of trees, are the articles of food which he prefers. 
The strength of his jaws and teeth enables him to break off 
and masticate the thickest branches of the hardest and tough¬ 
est trees. But the forests of Abyssinia afford trees of a softer 
consistency, and peculiarly succulent; which he eats in pre¬ 
ference to others: his upper lip is his chief instrument in 
collecting his food: he extends and twists it, so as to perform 
with it many of the functions which the elephant performs 
with his proboscis. After stripping a tree of its branches, a 
rhinoceros often applies his horn to the trunk, and, splitting 
it into so many lathes, devours it with as much ease and 
avidity as an ox would eat up a bunch of celery. In the 
forests inhabited by animals of this species, there appearsome- 
times trees divested of their leaves and branches, sometimes a 
trunk divided into lathes, a part of which have been eatenj 
and another part left fora future repast; and sometimes short 
stumps, of which the leaves, branches, and trunks, have been 
devoured. 
