(_Rhinoceros unicornis_)
Although formerly ranging a considerable way down the peninsula, the
great Indian rhinoceros, as this species should properly be called, is
more or less completely restricted to Nepal and the country east of the
Tista valley, especially the plain of Assam and Kuch-Behar. Here the
mighty beast, which stands over 5½ feet in height at the shoulder,
dwells in the tall grass-jungles, where it is as completely concealed
as is a rabbit in a meadow ready for mowing. The rhinoceroses, in
fact, make for themselves in this giant grass, tunnels, or “runs,” in
which they move from place to place perfectly secure from observation,
and likewise protected from the direct rays of the sun; and it
appears that, except to drink, they seldom leave this wonderful
covert. To attempt to shoot such enormous beasts on foot in jungle
of this description, where escape from the beaten track is well-nigh
impossible, would be little short of madness; and the Indian rhinoceros
is therefore always hunted on elephants.
In old books on Indian sports the rhinoceros is depicted as charging
the elephants, and attempting to spear them with its horn, if not in
the act of goring their bodies. This is, however, erroneous, as none of
the three named species of Asiatic rhinoceros use their horns in this
manner, but employ for offence their sharp, triangular lower tusks,
with which they make lateral thrusts and lunges after the manner of a
wild boar. African rhinoceroses, on the other hand, have no tusks, and
consequently have to rely on their horns--always two in number--for
both attack and defence.
It must not, however, be assumed from this that the absence of tusks
is compensated by the development of two horns, for there is one
Asiatic species, commonly known as the Sumatran rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros
sumatrensis_), which has two horns combined with lower tusks; this
species thus being the most formidably armed member of the whole
group. This so-called Sumatran rhinoceros also occurs in some of
the eastern districts of India, as does likewise the third Asiatic
species, commonly known as the Javan rhinoceros (_R. sondaicus_), which
resembles the great Indian species in carrying but one horn.
[Illustration]
A satisfactory and easily recognised distinction between the
rhinoceroses of south-eastern Asia and the two African species is
afforded by the circumstance that while in the former the hide is
thrown into a number of deep folds dividing it into separate areas, in
the latter these folds are more or less lacking, so that the skin is
comparatively smooth like that of a pig. The shape of the skin-folds
serves to distinguish the species forming the subject of the plate from
the other one-horned Asiatic species. Among the distinctive features
of the present animal may be noted the coif-like expansions of skin at
the sides of the head, the large tubercles, recalling the heads of the
rivets in an iron boiler, on the shoulders and hind-quarters, and the
somewhat triangular shape of the great shield on each shoulder, the
fold forming the upper border of which does not extend across the back.
By the older naturalists, rhinoceroses, elephants, and hippopotamuses
were grouped together under the title of pachyderms,--a name which has
completely dropped out of use in natural history. And very rightly,
since the three groups of animals brigaded together under that
designation have but little in common with one another. Elephants, for
instance, form a group by themselves; hippopotamuses are cousins of the
pigs, and thus related to deer and cattle; while rhinoceroses, together
with tapirs and horses, form a third group by themselves.
There may seem to the man in the street little in common between a
great lumbering brute like a rhinoceros and a Derby winner; but the
difference is due solely to the one being a modern specialised type
cut out solely for speed, and the other an old-fashioned creature
suited for wallowing in marshes or wandering on open plains where it
is sufficiently protected by its size and ferocity. Take away the
two side-toes from each foot of a rhinoceros, lengthen its limbs,
lighten its head and body, modify to a comparatively slight degree
its cheek-teeth, and replace its bare “pachydermatous” covering by a
thinner, hairy skin, and we should have a horse. Fortunate it is for
the naturalist that such primitive creatures as rhinoceroses and tapirs
have survived to the present day to afford us an adequate idea of what
their numerous extinct relatives looked like in life.
Rhinoceroses are purely herbivorous animals, but whereas the great
Indian species subsists chiefly on bamboo-leaves and other grasses,
its two Asiatic relatives depend more upon boughs and roots; this
difference being correlated with the structure of their teeth.
Producing but one offspring at a time, and that at long intervals,
these animals apparently live to a very great age, although by no means
so long as elephants. The idea that the hide of the Indian species is
bullet proof is altogether erroneous.