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As a general thing the little birds, on sight of danger, begin a wild chatter, rising from the back of the rhino and flying in an opposite direction from the danger. Then they return, light on the rhino's back, and repeat, often several times, the operation of flying away from the danger. If the rhino is a wise rhino he learns from the birds which is the safe way to go and soon trots swiftly off.
The rhino selected this pool as a good position from which to act on the defensive. He splashed into the water, stopped, and faced the horsemen. Then followed a few minutes' respite for all concerned. The horses were panting heavily after the sharp run, and the rhino's position in the pool rendered it difficult to approach him for a chance to throw a rope.
In all, we made between fifteen and twenty different attempts on different rhinos to get a charge, but with always practically the same result, yet with always the same thrill of excitement and uncertainty. Comprehensive statistics on a rhino's charges are hard to obtain.
Miss Phaeton flicked a fly off Rhino's ear, put her whip in the socket, and leant back also. "Then I suppose you didn't care much about him?" I asked. "Oh, I liked him pretty well," she answered very carelessly. At this moment, looking along the walk, I saw a man coming toward us. He was a handsome fellow, with just a touch of "softness" in his face.
This seemed to settle the fate of the other hyena, for immediately the two remaining wolves got at him. But rhino's next victim was a wolf, which he disposed of as quickly. "This left two cowards to fight for the supremacy; but the fight was taken out of them. They slunk apart and did not meet again.
"But the rhino saw him coming down the stay and lumbered aft into the washing-water to investigate, rounding the port corner of the house just as the skipper reached the starboard. From there he charged; and you cannot imagine the velocity of a rhino's charge. It is like that of a locomotive.
"By this time the python and the boa had gathered in about three feet of each other; the wolves and hyenas two against one, understand had reduced their number by half, and the lion was still pretending to fight the rhino. "He still found it best to dodge that upright tusk, while his claws and teeth couldn't even scratch the rhino's impervious hide. "Then he got it from another quarter.
This is because the rhino's scent is his keenest sense, and through it he becomes aware, in the majority of times, of man's presence. His sight is very poor indeed; he cannot see clearly even a moving object much beyond fifty yards. He can, however, hear pretty well.
In the beginning he rushes, upwind in instinctive reaction against the strange scent. If he catches sight of the man at all, it must be after he has approached to pretty close range, for only at close range are the rhino's eyes effective. Then he is quite likely to finish what was at first a blind dash by a genuine charge.
Gobbet picked up the debris, found that the tripod-head was split clean in two as with an axe, found the camera itself undamaged, found there was enough head left to support the camera, quickly mounted his machine again, and was just in time to catch the end of the rhino's chase after Means.
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