 Reference Base  The mammals of South Africa, vol I: Primates, carnivora a... |
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Sclater, W.L., 1900. The mammals of South Africa, vol I: Primates, carnivora and ungulata. London, R.H. Porter, pp. i-xxxi, 1-324
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| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - South Africa |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Status |
| Species: |
White Rhino |
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white rhino in general. LITERATURE. - Parsons, Phil. Trans. (1743) pl. iii, fig 6, horn figured;
Barrow (1801), i, p. 395, supposed occurrence in Namaqualand;
Campbell (1822) p. 294, figures head of one shot at `Mashow' in Bechuanaland;
Burchell (1822), ii, p. 75, allusion to discovery;
Harris (1838) pp. 148, 163, 211, notes on habits and shootin, on the Marico and Limpopo Rivers; Harris, (1840), figured on pl. xix;
Delegorgue (1847), i, p. 366, plentiful in Zululand;
Cumming (1855), i, pp. 248, 338, account of habits and shooting in 1844, with plate of female and young;
Andersson (1856), p. 387, recognizes and distinguishes the two species, and gives account of habits and distribution;
Livingstone (1857), p. 71, notes the straight-horned variety near Lake Ngami;
Baldwin (1863), pp. 128, 189, in Amatongaland and Marico in 1856 and 1857;
Grout (1863), p. 295, Zulu name;
Baines (1864), p. 394, gives a description and measurements of an example killed near Lake Ngami;
Selous (1881), p. 81, note on its activity in hill country;
Selous (1893), p. 158 account of shooting specimen the head of which is now in the South African Museum;
Nicolls & Eglington (1892) pl. 64 pl. ix fig. 33, note on approaching extinction;
Bryden (1892), p.490, on past and present distribution;
Lydekker (1898), p. 389, description and notes;
Oswell in Badminton Big Game, (1894) i. p. 43, notes on the varieties of the white rhinoceros
Ward (1896), p. 288, horn measurements;
Bryden (1897), p. 181, chapter on the natural history; Selous (1899b), p. 52, range, habits and history.
History and Variation. The square-lipped rhinoceros was met with first of all by Burchell, during his stay in Bechuanland, though only incidentally alluded to in his account of his journey. In his paper in the Journal of the Philomathic Society of Paris, he speaks of meeting with it first at about the 26th degree of south latitude, but gives no exact details.
Campbell, one of the early Bechuanaland missionaries, also figures the head of an example brought to him when at Kuraman; the figure is an exceedingly grotesque one, though obviously intended for this species.
Subsequently Harris, Cumming, Andersson and Baldwin, shot very large numbers, until about ten years ago it became exceedingly rare. We owe the greater part of our knowledge of the habits of this now nearly extinct species to Selous, to whom, too, the credit belongs, of having shown, without doubt, that there are only two distinct species of rhinoceros in South Africa.
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