Owing to the nature of the country in which it lives, the Indian rhinoceros cannot often be hunted with much prospect of success, except with the aid of elephants, which sagacious animals are not only employed to carry the hunters, but are also used to beat the great grass jungles in which the rhinoceroses lie hidden, and drive them towards the guns.
Despite its great size and strength, the Indian rhinoceros seems to be regarded as, in general, a timid and inoffensive animal, and even when wounded it seldom charges home. Elephants, however, appear to be as a rule nervous when in the near proximity of rhinoceroses, perhaps objecting to the smell of those animals. When the Indian rhinoceros does make good its charge against either man or elephant, it cuts and rips its enemy with its teeth, and makes little use of its horn as an offensive weapon.
The Indian rhinoceros is said to live principally, if not entirely, on grass and reeds. As a rule it is a solitary animal, but sometimes several are found living in a comparatively small extent of grass-covered plain.
Large males of this species will stand from 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet at the shoulder, and they are enormously bulky. Both sexes carry well-developed horns, which, however, do not usually attain a length of upwards of 12 inches. There is a specimen in the British Museum measuring 19 inches, and it is believed that in very exceptional instances a length of 2 feet has been attained.
The Javan Rhinoceros, though it has been called the Lesser Indian Rhinoceros, is said by a late authority—Mr. C. E. M. Russell—to stand about the same height at the shoulder as the Indian species. It is found in the Sunderbunds of Eastern Bengal, and has been met with in the Sikhim Terai and in Assam, ranging eastwards through Burma and the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo.
Photo by W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park.
HAIRY-EARED SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS.
This species is found in Eastern Bengal and in the Malay Peninsula and adjacent large islands.
