Newman, E., 1874. Rhinoceros sondaicus at the Zoological Gardens. Zoologist (2) 9: 3949-3952
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| Location: |
Captive - Europe |
| Subject: |
Captivity - Zoo Records |
| Species: |
Javan Rhino |
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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.
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Rhinoceros sondaicus at the Zoological Gardens
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