THE HOOK-LIPPED RHINOCEROS

T

HE 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 I can not 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 zebra, hartebeest, gazelle, and other buck for every one or two rhinos; I doubt whether we saw more than two or three hundred black rhinos all told, and I 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 of the northern base of Kenia, where, however, they were hard to see. They prefer dry country, although they need to drink freely every twenty-four hours.

Apparently the cow does not permit her old calf to stay with her after the new calf is born. I never saw a cow with two calves of different ages (or, for the matter of that, of the same age); yet many times I saw a cow followed by a half-grown, or more than half-grown, beast that must have been several years old. Generally

we found the bulls solitary, and the cows either solitary or followed by their calves. Occasionally we found a bull and cow, or a bull, cow, and calf, together. There is no regular breeding-time; the calf may be produced at any season. It follows its mother within a very few days, or even hours, of its birth, and is jealously guarded by the mother. When very young any one of the bigger beasts of prey will pounce on it, and instances have been known of a party of lions killing even a three-partsgrown animal. The adult fears no beast of the land, not even the lion, although it will usually move out of the elephant's way. Yet the crocodile, or perhaps a party of crocodiles, may pull a rhino under water and drown it. Mr. Fleischmann, of Cincinnati, not merely witnessed but photographed such an incident, in the Tana River, where the rhinoceros was seized by the hind leg as it stood in the water, could not reach the bank, and after a prolonged struggle was finally pulled beneath the surface. Such an occurrence must be wholly exceptional; for the rhinoceros shows no hesitation in approaching deep water, not merely drinking but bathing in it.

The animals are fond of wallowing in mud-holes, and also at times in dusty places. In one place I found a cow rhino which had evidently been living for many weeks in the river-bottom of the Athi. There was plenty of food in the brush jungle which filled the spaces between the trees, and which afforded thick cover; there was abundant water in pools near by; and evidently the rhino had kept close to the immediate neighborhood. This rhino spent its time in the immediate vicinity of its drinking-place, and during most of the day lay up in the dense shade

The porter who was tossed and gored in the thigh by the charging rhinoceros.

gait in a fairly direct course for eight or ten miles into the wastes of leafless thorn scrub, upon which they fed and in which they passed their noonday hours of rest. In the Sotik the rhinos spent their whole time in the bare, open plains, drinking at one or another of the widely scattered, rapidly drying little pools. They usually drank at dusk, that is about nightfall, and again about sunrise. Sometimes during the noon hours they lay out in the open, without a particle of cover; sometimes they lay under an acacia, or wild olive, or candalabra euphorbia. They sometimes stood while resting, but usually lay down, either on their sides or in a kneeling position. They not only browsed on the thorny, partially leaved twigs-the black rhino is a browser, whereas the white rhino is exclusively a grazer-but also fed greedily in the bare plains on the lowgrowing shrubby plants but a few inches

could stand the thorns and the acrid sap. I saw them feed at noon; once I stumbled on one feeding by moonlight; but their favorite feeding-times were in the morning and afternoon.

Like other game, rhinos are assailed by various insect pests. Biting flies annoy them much; even when resting, their ears are usually in motion to drive away their winged assailants. The ticks swarm on them, loathsome creatures, swollen with blood, which might be so crowded under the armpits, in the groin, and in the soft parts generally that they looked like mussels on an old dock. I do not quite understand why the tick birds fail to keep down these ticks. These tick birds, rather handsome, noisy creatures, are in most places the well-nigh invariable attendants of rhino when the latter dwell on the plains or in fairly open bush. They clamber all over their huge hosts, like nut