Edward Blyth, whose knowledge of Indian Mammalia was unrivaled, and whose death we are still lamenting, published, at p. 8506 of the ' Zoologist' for 1863, the most exhaustive 'Memoir on the living Asiatic Species of Rhinoceros' that has ever appeared. He collected every previously printed allusion to these huge beasts, and systematized the whole into one masterly essay. One of the most remarkable inferences from this paper is that the adult male rhinoceros which lived so many years at the Zoo, and for which the Society paid ?1000, was Rhinoceros sondaicus, the species now exhibiting in the Elephant House. It seems singular that any doubt should exist on such a point, and forcibly illustrates the necessity of having drawings made of every animal added to that grand collection, excepting when an undoubted individual of a species previously figured; such a collection of drawings would not only prove a source of educational and instructive interest, but form an invaluable historical record of that admirable institution. The specimen now in the Gardens is from Java, and I am told it has been purchased for the Society, at ?800. It is deposited for the present in the first compartment of the elephant-house as you enter from the tunnel. I visited this animal on the 21 March, fourteen days after his arrival, and was particularly struck with the comparatively slender character of the head, which is much lower in proportion to its bulk than that of Unicornis.
Turning again to the ' Zoologist,' it is recorded by Mr. Arthur Adams, at p. 7328 of the volume for 1861, that at Mew Bay, in Java, near the Straits of Sunda, `the ground is literally ploughed up by the tracks of these unwieldy brutes.' The brutes in question beyond doubt this species, Rhinoceros sondaicus, no other species inhabiting that island.
London Zoo. The tip of the upper lip is pointed and finger-like.
London Zoo. Was par- ticularly struck with the comparatively slender character of the head, which is much lower in proportion to its bulk than that of Unicornis.
London Zoo. The horn is little more than an apology, short and amorphous, as though the poor beast had been long in durance vile, and had worn away this instrument in its efforts to escape.
London Zoo. Was par- ticularly struck with the comparatively slender character of the head, which is much lower in proportion to its bulk than that of Unicornis.
London Zoo. The horn is little more than an apology, short and amorphous, as though the poor beast had been long in durance vile, and had worn away this instrument in its efforts to escape.
London Zoo. The tip of the upper lip is pointed and finger-like.
The distinctions between these one-horned species are, in the first place, that Unicornis is much the larger, and secondly, that they inhabit different regions. Mr. Blyth was, beyond question, of all naturalists living at the time he wrote to me, [letter dated calcutta, March 1, 1862] the best qualified to pronounce an authoritative opinion on the diagnostics of the two.
