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Show 1876.] HON. W. DRUMMOND ON AFRICAN RHINOCEROSES. Ill R. keitloa is another well-recognized species ; but for the sake comparison with those killed in other parts of Africa I will mention the average measurements I have noted, and the peculiarities of structure. ft. in. Length from nose to base of tail, about 11 0 Height at the shoulder about 5 0 Circumference about 9 0 Average length of the anterior horn.. 1 8 Average length of the posterior horn. . 1 6 In some few cases the posterior horn is a trifle the longer, and others 4 or 5 inches the shorter. The head is of the same type as that of R. bicornis major and R. bicornis minor; and the peculiar snout and long prehensile upper lip which characterizes these three species is more marked than in the former, while less so than in the latter. Its food is chiefly, if not solely, the young and tender shoots of various kinds of thorns. In disposition it is decidedly morose and ill-tempered ; but it seldom charges without provocation. Its habitat is a very extended one, though it does not seem to be plentiful anywhere, more than two or three being seldom seen together, and then only at long intervals. I have found it from the Black Umfolosi river in Zululand up to the Limpopo, and the black crosses seen on tbe map now before us in the country south of the Zambesi show the approximate spots where, to m y knowledge, it has been killed. Andersson seems to have met with it to the west; and it most undoubtedly exists in Abyssinia, specimens which I have examined from that country being now in the British Museum, and a very perfect one in the possession of Mr. Gerrard; while from the measurements of a pair of horns from a Rhinoceros cow killed by Sir Samuel Baker (the front horn 23 inches, the back 17i inches) I should be inclined to believe that it also must have been R. keitloa, 17$ inches being an extremely unusual length for the posterior horn of any other species. I will next speak of R. oswelli, about which, however, much remains to be learned. In conformation, habits, disposition, and food it in no way differs from R. simus, except in its horns. This singularity, as is well known, consists in the front horn, which is straight, and even in comparison with R. simus unusually long, pointing forward at an acute angle instead of standing erect from the snout, though this angle is very various in different animals, some possessing the peculiarity in the most modified form, while in others it is very marked. The red marks on the map show where I know it to have been met with or killed ; and I have found specimens high up on the east coast, though not exhibiting their characteristic to any great degree. It is, however, by far the most local of any of the species, so much so as to induce m e to believe that it is merely local variety, some bull or cow (probably the former) having either from injury or accident of birth possessed a horn similar to that which we now find among its descendants. The fact of the peculiarity varying so greatly in different individuals is, it seems to me, |
