RHINOCEROS, in zoology, a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order of bellux, of which there is but one species, viz. the unicornis, a native of Africa and India. It has two fore-teeth in each jaw, situate at a great distance from each other, and blunt, and a solid conical horn upon the nose. This, of all quadrupeds, approaches nearest to the elephant in size, the body being nearly as bulky, but the legs much shorter. A full-grown rhinoceros is fourteen feet high; and the legs are so short with all this height, that the belly comes near the ground: the head is very large and oblong, of an irregular figure, broad at top, and depressed towards the snout: the ears resemble those of a hog: the eyes are very small, and situate at a small distance from the extremity of the snout: on the upper part of the snout, near the extremity, stands the horn, growing to about two feet and a half in length, bent a little back, of a black colour, and vastly firm and hard: the skin is remarkably thick and hard, so that the creature could not turn its body in any direction but for the joints and folds in it: the tail is short, and furnished with some long and extremely thick black hairs. The rhinoceros feeds upon thorns and brushwood; like the sow, he wallows in the mire. He is gentle and inoffensive, except when he is injured. But, when irritated, he even overturns large trees in his fury.