Blyth, E., 1875. Catalogue of the mammals and birds of Burma. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 44 (2) Extra: 1-167
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Asia - South East Asia - Myanmar (Burma) |
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Distribution |
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Asian Rhino Species |
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A.Grote, biography Blyth
[x] Blyth made a short tour in the Provinces in July, 1856. He spent some six weeks in Lucknow, Cawnpore, Allahabad, and Benares. Oude had just been annexed, and the sale of the Royal Menagerie at Lucknow had been determined on. The tigers were the finest caged specimens in the world, and to one who understood their value in the European market, the inducement to buy and ship the animals was irresistible. A German friend joined in the speculation, and found the necessary funds. Blyth was to do the rest, and as no competitors offered, he bought the bulk of the collection for a trifle. Eighteen magnificent tigers were sold at 20 rupees (£2) a head! Some casualties occurred on the passage down the river; but his collection, when exhibited in Calcutta, contained sixteen tigers, one leopard, one bear, two cheetas, three caracals, two rhinoceroses, and a giraffe, which carried a saddle and was daily ridden. Difficulties unfortunately occurred in finding ships for the transport of the animals, and their detention in Calcutta caused further casualties and heavy charges, which his partner would not face. The speculation collapsed, but one of the tigers which reached England realized £140.
[xv] The interest which Blyth had always taken in the Rhinoceros group was revived by the safe arrival at the Zoological Gardens of the Chittagong individual, the Ceratorhinus crossei of the present Catalogue. In his paper contributed to the 'Annals' in 1872, he argues against Gray's assignment of this species to Rhinoceros sumatrensis, and in favour of its identity with the fine Tavoy specimen shot by Col. Fytche, and figured in this Journal, vol. xxxi. p. 156. Blyth’s conjecture that the Arakan Hills is one of the habitats of this species is borne out by the letter in which Capt. Lewin, the superintendent of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong, first reported to me in 1867 the capture of the animal.[other dates incorrect] After giving her measurements, which were then 6 feet from crown of head to root of tail, and 4 feet 2 inches in height, and otherwise minutely describing her horns, Capt. Lewin adds: "You are mistaken I think in supposing that she has come from the Tenasserim Provinces —the two-horned species is found in my hills. I have seen one alive, and several of my men have seen a dead one."
Blyth, catalogue
[50]
Fam. Rhinoceratidae. Rhinoceroses.
125. Rhinoceros Sondaicus (J. 213). Rhinoceros sondaicus, Cuvier; Horsfield, Zool. Res. in Java; S. Muller, Verhand. t. 33; R. nasalis, R. stenorhtynchus, et R. floweri, Gray, apud Busk, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 416. Khyen-hseu, Mason.
The Lesser One-horned Rhinoceros. So far as I have been able to satisfy myself, this is the only single-horned Rhinoceros of the Indo-Chinese and Malayan countries, its range of distribution extending northward to the Garo hills, where it co-exists with the large R. indicus, and to eastern and Lower Bengal. It would appear to be the only Rhinoceros that inhabits the Sundarbans, occurring within a few miles of Calcutta; and yet I know of but one instance of its having been brought to Europe alive,* and then it was not recognized as differing from R. indicus, which latter is not uncommonly brought down the Brahmaputra from Assam, and sent to Europe from Calcutta. * [Since Mr. Blyth wrote this paper, another example of this species is now alive in the Zoological Society's Garden.—J.A.]
There is reason, also, to believe that R. sondaicus is the species which was formerly hunted by the Moghul Emperor Baber on the banks of the Indus. Southward it inhabits the Malayan peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo (?vide Busk, he. cit.). It is about a third smaller than R. indicus, from which it is readily distinguished by having the tubercles of the hide uniformly of the same small size, and also by having a fold or plait of the skin crossing the nape, in addition to that behind the shoulder-blades. In R. indicus the corresponding fold does not thus meet its opposite, but curves backward to join—or nearly so in some individuals—the one posterior to the shoulders. A fine living male, before referred to, was exhibited for some years about Great Britain, and was finally deposited in the Liverpool Zoological Gardens, where it died, and its preserved skeleton is now in the anatomical museum of Guy's Hospital, Southwark. Two passable figures of it from life are given in the "Naturalists' Library," where it is mistaken for the huge R. indicus.
Rhinoceros sondaicus is found at all elevations, as remarked of it by Dr. Horsfield, in Java; and from the mountains of Palouk, thirty miles north of Mergui, a writer quoted by the Eev. F. Mason observes—"We were on the summit of the highest range of mountains in the provincesThe tall timber trees at the first ascent were dwindled into a thick growth of stunted bushes, unmixed with a single shrub. The path, which was narrow and steep, had reached a level spot, that had been in the rains the wallowing place of a rhinoceros; for it has the habit of wallowing in the mire no less than the hog and the buffalo." The Sumatra Rhinoceros was also tracked by General Fytche to an altitude of about 4000 feet, when he obtained a close view of the animal with two finely developed horns.* [* J. A. S. B. xxxi. p. 167. t July, 1832, p. 301.] Crawfurd was assured at Bangkok that a thousand Rhinoceros horns were thence annually exported to China.
According to Helfer, the R. indicus, in addition to R. sondaicus, inhabits the northern portion of the Tenasserim provinces; and Mason asserts that a single-horned Rhinoceros from the Arakan jungles was purchased by the London Zoological Society, and lived for many years in the Regent's Park, the species in that case being unquestionably R. indicus. Again, according to a writer in the Oriental Sporting Magazine, if both species of one-horned Rhinoceros occur in Burma, and he cites, as his authority for the statement, a writer in the first series of the same periodical (vol. ii. p. 35), mentioning that his said authority appears to be "a thorough sportsman and no mean naturalist." I nevertheless hesitate, upon present evidence, to admit the Great Indian Rhinoceros into the list of Burmese animals.
126. Ceratorhinus Crossii? Rhinoceros crossii, Gray, P. Z. S. 1854, p. 250, with figure of anterior horn, 32 in. in length over the curvature, and 17 in. in span from base to tip; R. lasiotis, Sclater.
Ear-fringed Rhinoceros. In the Rhinoceroses of this type the hide is comparatively thin, and is not tessellated or tuberculated, nor does it form a "coat of mail," as in the preceding; but there is one great groove (rather than fold or plait) behind the shoulder-blades, and a less conspicuous crease on the flank, which does not extend upwards to cross the loins, as represented in F. Cuvier's figure; and there are also slight folds on the neck and at base of the limbs; the skin being moreover hairy throughout. There is also a second horn placed at some distance behind the nasal one.
Until recently, the existence of more than one species was unsuspected. In 1868, a young female was captured in the province of Chittagong, and on its arrival in the London Zoological Gardens, early in 1872, was believed to represent the Rhinoceros sumatrensis of Bell and Raffles; but soon afterwards another two-horned Rhinoceros was received at the same establishment from Malacca, obviously of a different species, which proved to be the veritable R. sumatrensis. Since its arrival, it has now (1873) considerably increased in size, and it probably is not yet quite full grown. As compared with C. sumatrensis, it is a considerably larger animal, with much smoother skin, of a pale claycolour, covered with longer and less bristly hair, the latter of a light brown colour, as seen in the mass. The ears are placed much further apart at the base, and are not lined with hair as in the other, but are conspicuously fringed with long hair; and the tail is much shorter and largely tufted at the end. The horns are worn away, but if the species be truly assigned to C. crossii, the anterior would grow very long and curve to a remarkable extent backwards, while the posterior horn would probably be short. A second specimen of an anterior horn, almost as fine as the one first described, has recently turned up among the stores of the British Museum; and I found a smaller anterior horn of R. crossii in the Museum of the London Royal College of Surgeons, confirmatory of its peculiar shape. In this group the horns are remarkably slender except at the base, and of much more compact texture than in other Rhinoceros horns. I have reason to believe that this is the two-horned species which inhabits the Arakan hills, those of northern Burma, and which extends rarely into Assam; and I think it highly probable that the skull figured in Journ. As. Soc. B. xxxi. p. 156, pi. iii. f. 1, represents that of C. crossii (seu R. lasiotis), in which case the range of the species would extend into the Tenasserim provinces. A detailed notice of the individual sent to London has been given by Dr. Anderson.* (* P. Z. S. 1873, p. 129.)
127. C. Sumatrensis. Rhinoceros sumatrensis, Bell, Phil. Tr. 1793, p. 3, pi. 2, 3, 4; R. javanus, F. Cuv. Mamm. Lithog., very young; R. blythii, Gray, Ann. M. N. H. (4), voL xi. p. 360. Kyen-shan, Mason.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros is much smaller than the preceding species, with a harsh and rugose skin, which is black, and clad with bristly black hairs; the ears less widely separated at base, and filled internally with black hairs; the muzzle anterior to the nasal horn much broader; and the tail conspicuously longer, tapering, and not tufted at the end. Horns attaining considerable length, and curving but slightly backwards, as represented in Journ. As. Soc. B. xxxi. p. 156, pi. iv. f. 1.
This is the ordinary two-horned Rhinoceros of the Tenasserim provinces, extending into Siam, and southward throughout the Malayan peninsula and Sumatra; but in Borneo there would appear to be a still smaller species, which is referred to the same by Professor H. Schlegel. How far northward its range extends has not been ascertained, but I suspect that it does not occur in Arakan. A Rhinoceros of some kind inhabits the province of Quang-si, in China, in lat. 15 deg. N., as noticed by Du Halde. In general, this is an exceedingly shy and timid animal, but it has been known to attack the night-fires of travellers, as happened once to Professor Oldham. In this case the animal was shot, and its skull is now in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, where I have verified it as appertaining to the present species. For remarks on this and the preceding species, vide Ann. M. N. H. (4), vol. x. (1872), p. 399. Lieutenant Newbold noticed the existence of the "Badok, or Sumatran Rhinoceros'' in the Malayan peninsula in 1838.
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Catalogue of the mammals and birds of Burma
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