. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. Notes and Comments 123 in this region. The reason, as Mr. Pocock points out, is now apparent. These animals inhabit a more open country than many of the other forms of zebra, and conse- quently when lying down are exposed to a much stronger light, so that they require the whole of the lower line of the body to be lightened when in this posture in order to do away with the effect of the deep shadow cast upon them; hence the light colouring of the buttocks. The sable antelope affords another notable instance of the same type o
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. Notes and Comments 123 in this region. The reason, as Mr. Pocock points out, is now apparent. These animals inhabit a more open country than many of the other forms of zebra, and conse- quently when lying down are exposed to a much stronger light, so that they require the whole of the lower line of the body to be lightened when in this posture in order to do away with the effect of the deep shadow cast upon them; hence the light colouring of the buttocks. The sable antelope affords another notable instance of the same type of colouring, the pure white of the buttocks forming a continuous line with that of the under-parts when in a recumbent posture, and thus no doubt neutralising the effect of the black upper-parts and of the shadow cast by the body. At the same time, the white rump- blaze in this and many other species pro- bably also serves the purpose of a recogni- tion-mark, so that it has a double function. It would be interesting to have an animal with this type of colouring stuffed in a recumbent position to illustrate the purpose of the rump-blaze. J*1 Had portable cameras been available in the early days of South African Rhfn^erol sPort nothing would have been easier than to obtain photo- graphs of the white rhinoceros, for these great beasts (second only in bulk to the elephant) were in the habit of coming quite close up to the waggons of the sportsmen, with the apparent intention of attacking them. Probably this was due to the creatures mistaking the waggons for some monstrous animal which had invaded their territory. Be this as it may, the white rhinoceros (apart from the race existing in equatorial Central Africa) is now on the point of. WHITE RHINOCEEOS. The first and perhaps the last photograph from lite of a well-niyh extinct African Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and
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Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1902
