Part 77 (1/2)

NATIVE NAMES.--_Ta-ra-shu_, Burmese; _Kuda-ayer_, Malayan; _Sala-dang_ of the Limuns in Sumatra; _Gindol_ of the Mannas in Sumatra; _Babi-alu_ in Bencoolen; _Tennu_ in Malacca.

HABITAT.--Tena.s.serim provinces, as high as the fifteenth degree north lat.i.tude; Lower Siam; the Malayan peninsula; Sumatra and Borneo.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Tapirus Malaya.n.u.s_.]

DESCRIPTION.--General colour glossy black, but with the back, rump, and sides of the belly white. The young are beautifully variegated, being striped and spotted with yellow fawn on the upper parts of the body, and with white below.

Mr. Mason writes: ”Though seen so rarely, the tapir is by no means uncommon in the interior of the Tavoy and Mergui provinces. I have frequently come upon its recent footmarks, but it avoids the inhabited parts of the country. It has never been heard of north of the valley of the Tavoy river.”

The tapir is naturally all the world over a very shy, retiring animal, but it is capable of being tamed when taken young, and of showing great attachment.

FAMILY RHINOCEROTIDAE.

”The skeleton of the rhinoceros viewed generally has a resemblance to that of the little hyrax, the tapir, and the horse. The skull is very much elevated at the base, being somewhat of a pyramidal form, and the nasal bones curve upwards and downwards, and are of such a size and thickness, in order to support one or more immense horns, that they are quite unparalleled for their development in any other existing quadruped. The nasal bones, together with the premaxillary and maxillary bones, form the general contour for the external apertures of the nostrils. This is peculiar, and found in no other animal with the exception of the tapir.”--_Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins and Mr. Oakley_.

The external appearance of this animal is familiar to most--a large ungainly creature, with a long head, a ma.s.sive horn on its nose, sometimes two horns; a round unwieldly body covered with an immensely thick hide arranged in heavy folds; short tail and short legs, with three toes covered with broad nails or hoofs.

The stomach is simple; the intestines about eight times the length of the body, and the caec.u.m is large and sacculated. The horn is a mere agglutinated ma.s.s of hair or fibre superimposed on the skin, and has no bony core. The females have two inguinal mammae.

The dent.i.tion is peculiar; ”the grinders are implanted by distinct roots, and in the upper jaw their crowns are traversed by two deep folds of enamel which const.i.tute open valleys. In the lower jaw they are composed of two crescent-shaped lobes, also open. The covering of cement is thin, and never fills up the valleys, as in the case of the more complex dental system in the horse. The normal number of grinders is seven in each jaw, while the incisors, as we have already remarked, vary not only in form but also are sometimes absent, and canines are not developed in any of the living or fossil members of the family.”--_Boyd Dawkins and Oakley_.

The Rhinocerotidae are divided into two groups--the Asiatic and the African; and the former consist of two genera--RHINOCEROS and CERATORHINUS, the former with one and the latter with two horns.

It is a moot point whether the rhinoceros is or is not the unicorn of Scripture, though it is by no means clear that the animal in question was a one-horned creature, but according to some might have been the great wild ox or urus of Macedonia. An Indian single-horned rhinoceros was sent from India to the king of Portugal in 1513, and from it various most distorted pictures were disseminated throughout Europe. It was represented as covered with a wondrous suit of armour beautifully decorated, and with a second horn on its shoulders!

The first one brought alive to England was in 1685. Parsons describes and figures one brought to Europe in 1739, and another in 1741 ('Philosophical Transactions,' xlii.).

The Asiatic rhinoceroses differ from the African in having the skin divided into s.h.i.+elds by well-marked folds, long upper cutting teeth, the African having none, and by the produced conical nasal bones of the skull instead of broad and rounded ones. There are one or two other minor yet well-marked differences which we need not mention here.

_GENUS RHINOCEROS_.

”The skin divided into s.h.i.+elds by well-marked folds, lumbar and neck-folds well developed; horn single, anterior; part of occipital bone near the occipital condyle and the condyles themselves prominent.”--_Gray_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dent.i.tion of Rhinoceros. Lower Jaw. Upper Jaw.]

There are two species in India, viz. _Rhinoceros Indicus_ and _R.

Sondaicus_, the latter being the Javan species.

For the following description of the former I have to thank Mr. J.

c.o.c.kburn, who, with most unselfish kindness, kept back the article he was about to publish, and gave it to me to incorporate in this work. The following remarks on dent.i.tion are also his:[30]--

”The normal dent.i.tion of _R. Indicus_ is: Inc., 1--1/2--2; premolars, 4--4/4--4; molars, 3--3/3--3; but the dent.i.tion varies to a great extent; for example, in a specimen of _R. Sondaicus_ it stood: Inc., 1--1/2--2; molars, 6--7/6--6. The first premolar in both _Indicus_ and _Sondaicus_ is a deciduous tooth, which is not usually replaced, and gradually drops out with age, but it may be retained till extreme old age. In the majority of cases it is either lost or worn down before the last molar is in wear. The incisors also vary greatly in the adult animal; they are 1--1/2--2, the outer pair below being the formidable dagger-shaped tushes, with which they inflict the terrible gashes they can produce. The median pair lower are usually lost or absorbed by advancing age, having no functions, and the incisive tusks themselves are subject to very rapid wear, being often worn down before the animal has reached middle age. Occasionally _R. Indicus_ has six incisors in the lower jaw (the normal number in other mammalia), and four in the upper, but this is very exceptional.”--_J.

c.o.c.kburn_, MS.

[Footnote 30: There are some interesting notes on the dent.i.tion of the rhinoceros, especially in abnormal conditions, by Mr. Lydekker in the 'J. A. S. B.' for 1880, vol. xlix., part ii.]

NO. 429. RHINOCEROS INDICUS.

(_Jerdon's No. 212_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Genda_, _Gonda_, _Ganda_, or _Genra_, Hindi; _Gor_, a.s.samese.