Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures.

British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.

Date:: 1907

Credit: Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$the last, but there are two horns, and the skin is smoother, with no fold crossing in front of the shoulder. Although variable in this respect, this species is the most hairy of all the Rhinoceroses, as it is the smallest. Its range extends from the Bengal Sandar- bans to Sumatra, and there are several local races; the two specimens exhibited belonging to the dark-coloured Malay race. ,, . Africa is the home of two species of Rhinoceros, in Afrcan 1 both of which there are no distinct folds in the Rhinoceroses. 1 „ 1 . . skin; teeth are absent from the front ot the jaws ot the adult, there are two large horns placed close together, and the nasal bones of the skull are blunt and rounded. Of the two species, the larger is the White Rhinoceros, also known as BurchelFs or the Square-mouthed Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros [Diceros~\ simus, 1002, fig. 3 a), formerly numerous in the districts to the north of the Orange River, but now nearly exterminated, although existing in [Case 37.] Central Equatorial Africa near Lado. The most distinctive external features of this species are the short and truncated muzzle, and non- prehensile upper lip; but it is also well characterised by the very complex pattern of the grinding-surface of the upper molar teeth, which become worn quite flat. Its food consists solely of grass. [CaseH.] In the Common,or Black,Rhinoceros (R. \_Diceros\ bicornis, 1003, fig. 3 b) the upper lip is distinctly prehensile, and the upper molar teeth are of a simpler type, their grinding-surfaces being ridged. This species feeds entirely on leaves and twigs. There is great variation in respect to the relative lengths of the two horns; those individuals in which the second is as long as or longer than the first have received the name of Keitloa. [Lower Mammal Horses. Gallery. Family Equidae. This family, which includes true Horses, Zebras, and Asses, is now represented only by the genus Cases 38, ” ' Equus, although in past times there were several 39 & 39*.] other types. From the other two existing families of Perisso- dactyla, modern Equidce are distinguished by the tall crowns and complex structure of their cheek-teeth, in which all the hollows and valleys formed by the infoldings of enamel are filled by cement, so as to form a grinding surface of a perfect type. Another feature is the presence of an infolding of the enamel in the summits of the incisors, thus producing what is called the$