in zoology, a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order of bovines. There is but one species, viz., the unicornis, with a single horn, placed near the end of the nose, sometimes three feet and a half long, black and smooth; the upper lip long, hangs over the lower, ends in a point, is very pliable, and serves to collect its food, and deliver it into the mouth; the nostrils are placed transversely; the ears large, erect, pointed; eyes small and dull; the skin is naked, rough, or tuberculated, lying about the neck in vast folds; there is another fold from the shoulders to the rhinoceros' fore-legs; another from the hind-part of the back to the thighs; the skin is so thick and so strong, as to turn the edge of a scymetar, and resist a mulet-ball; the belly hangs low; the legs are short, strong, and thick; the hoofs divided into three parts, each pointing forward.

Those which have been brought to Europe have been young and small: Bonnus says, that in respect to bulk of body, they equal the elephant; but are lower on account of the shortness of their legs.

Inhabits Bengal, Siam, Cochin-China, Quanghi in China, the isles of Java and Sumatra, Congo, Angola, Ethiopia, and the country as low as the Cape: loves shady forests, the neighbourhood of rivers and marshy places: fond of wallowing in mire like the hog; is said by that means to give shelter in the folds of its skin to scorpions, centipedes, and other insects. Is a solitary animal; brings one young at a time, and is very solicitous about it. It is quiet and inoffensive; but if provoked, furious, very swift, and very dangerous: Mr Pennant knew a gentleman who had his belly ripped up by one, but survived the wound. Is dull of sight; but has a most exquisite scent: feeds on vegetables, particularly shrubs, broom, and thistles; grunts like a hog: is said to comfort with the tiger; a fable founded on their common attachment to the sides of rivers, and on that account are sometimes found near each other. Is said, when it has flung down a man, to lick the flesh quite from the bone with its rough tongue; this very doubtful; that which wounded the gentleman retired instantly after the stroke.

Its flesh is eaten; Kolben says it is very good: the skin, the flesh, hoofs, teeth, and very dung, are used in India medicinally. The horn is in great repute as an antidote against poison, especially that of a virgin rhinoceros: but it is not every horn that has this virtue; some are held very cheap, while others take a vast price. Cups are made of them.—Found sometimes with double horns: Hamilton, in his voyage to the East Indies, I. 8. says, that he saw brought from Natal, in Africa, three horns growing from one root; the longest 18, the next 12, and the third 8 inches long. Martial alludes to a variety of this kind by his urufas cornu genuino.

It is the unicorn of Holy Writ, and of the ancients; the oryx and Indian as of Aristotle, who says it has but one horn: his informers might well compare the clumsy shape of the rhinoceros to that of an as; so that the philosopher might easily be induced to pronounce it a whole-footed animal. This was also the boi unicorns and fera monoceros of Pliny; both were of India, the same country with this animal; and in his account of the monoceros, he exactly describes the great black horn and the hog-like tail. The unicorn of Holy Writ has all the properties of the rhinoceros, rage, untamableness, great swiftness, and great strength.

It was known to the Romans in very early times: its figure is among the animals of the Pæstum pavement. Augustus introduced one into the shows, on his triumph over Cleopatra; and there is extant a coin of Domitian, with a double-horned rhinoceros on it. The combats between the elephant and rhinoceros, a fable derived from Pliny.

Rhinoceros-Bird. See Buceros.