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| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Morphology - Horn |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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Interested, like very many others, in the curious feat of self-mutilation performed by the male rhinoceros at the Zoo, I paid him a visit on Saturday, August the 27th, expecting to see the horn itself adorned with a label notifying the particulars of so extraordinary an event: in this I was disappointed; but I made an observation on the female rhinoceros which was so new and interesting to me that I think it worth recording. It has long been observed by all who habitually frequent these gardens, that this horn topples forward over the creature's mouth and has thus assumed a very extraordinary appearance; but it has not been recorded or I should perhaps say that I have seen no record, of the horn being moveable, not perhaps at the will of the animal, or by the assistance of any muscles connected with the horn, but by the application of some external power, such, for instance, as that of a man's hand. I saw this phenomenon exhibited several times by a visitor at the gardens, and it was very evident that the horn was loose, just in the same sense as we speak of a loose tooth. It is, I believe, an opinion now universally received, that the material of which the horn is composed is exactly the same as hair, that it is in fact neither more nor less than conglomerate hair; but there is nothing in this to induce the belief that it could be moved independently of the head, and indeed independently of the skin, for as the operator rocked the horn very gently to and fro a slight fissure became evident between the base of the horn and the skin immediately surrounding it, so that it not only seems probable that this creature may shortly become hornless, like its mate, but it suggests the idea that the horn of the rhinoceros, like that of the stag, may be deciduous and renewable. In connection with this subject the following note by a well-known zoologist will he found highly interesting: it is extracted from the ' Field' newspaper of the 10th of September
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The horn of the Indian rhinoceros moveable
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