The colour of the so-called white rhinoceros is dark grey. The second species of African rhinoceros, which is also dark grey in colour, is known as the Black or Prehensile-lipped Rhinoceros.
Less than a hundred years ago the range of this fast-disappearing species extended from the north-western districts of the Cape Colony to Abyssinia, and at that time it must have been plentiful over almost the whole of the intervening country. It never seems to have penetrated into the equatorial forest regions of West Central Africa, where the climate is probably too damp to suit its requirements; for both species of African rhinoceros appear to like a dry climate, and not to object to very arid surroundings. At the same time they never wander many miles from a river or pool, and drink regularly every night, and in hot weather probably very often a second time in the early morning.
In Southern Africa the black rhinoceros appears to attain to a larger size than in the countries farther north. To the south of the Zambesi large bulls of this species will stand 5 feet 8 inches at the shoulder; whilst the height of an adult bull, as taken by Mr. F. Jackson at Naivasha, in East Africa, was 5 feet 5 inches; and Mr. A. H. Neumann gives the standing height of another adult bull shot by himself still farther north, near Lake Rudolph, as only 4 feet 9 inches.
Photo by Norman B. Smith, Esq.
BLACK AFRICAN RHINOCEROS.
This photograph, taken by a sportsman in Africa, shows a charging rhinoceros just before it was shot.
It is now generally recognised that there is but one species of prehensile-lipped rhinoceros in Africa, though the horns, and especially the hinder one, differ in length and shape to such an extent that it was long thought that there were at least two distinct species, those with both horns of equal or nearly equal length having been distinguished from the more common form, with a comparatively short second horn, as the Keitloa, this being the name in the Sechuana dialect for a prehensile-lipped rhinoceros with horns of equal length. Speaking on this subject, Mr. A. H. Neumann, who has had great experience with the black rhinoceros in East Africa, writes: "Length of horn is a purely fortuitous individual trait; and the extremely long horns (mostly of females) which have occasionally been obtained from traders on the east coast, and brought home, are merely exceptionally fine specimens, selected from among large numbers brought to the coast (the bulk of which, I am told, go to China to be ground up into medicine), and do not belong to any distinct species, nor come from any particular region. In proof of this contention I may mention that I have a 40-inch horn, the owner of which I myself shot at the northern base of the Jambeni Range (near Kenia), in a neighbourhood where I hunted a great deal and saw great numbers of rhinos, and shot a good many. The vast majority have quite short horns—under a foot—and anything over 18 inches is uncommon, while a length of 30 inches or upwards is extremely rare." The black rhinoceros, I believe, never eats grass, but browses on the young shoots of trees and bushes, which are often quite leafless and seem excessively dry. In this way it chews up and swallows great quantities of dry-looking twigs, much of which passes through its stomach undigested.
Photo by York & Son] [Notting Hill.