182 NATl'RAL HISTORY. 



The Hippopotamus feeds entirely on vegetable substances, such 

 as grass and brushwood. The fine animal now in the posses- 

 sion of the Zoological Society eats all kinds of vegetables, not 

 disdaining roots. This animal is peculiarly interesting from 

 being the first Hippopotamus brought to Europe for many 

 hundred years, and in all probability the first that has ever 

 reached this country. 



In Harris's Sports of South Africa, a very good and accurate 

 account is given of the habits of the Hippopotamus. 



" This animal abounds in the Limpopo, dividing the empire 

 with its amphibious neighbour the crocodile. Throughout 

 the night the unwieldly monsters might be heard snorting 

 and blowing during their aquatic gambols, and we not unfre- 

 quently detected them in the act of sallying from their reed- 

 grown coverts, to graze by the serene light of the moon ; 

 never, however, venturing to any distance from the river, 

 the stronghold to which they betake themselves on the small- 

 est alarm. Occasionally, during the day, they were to be seen 

 basking on the shore, amid ooze and mud ; but shots were 

 most constantly to be had at their uncouth heads, when pro- 

 truded from the water to draw breath ; and, if killed, the 

 body rose to the surface. Vulnerable only behind the ear, how- 

 ever, or the eye, which is placed in a prominence, so as to 

 resemble the garret window of a Dutch house, they require 

 the perfection of rifle practice, and after a few shots become 

 exceedingly shy, exhibiting the snout only, and as instantly 

 withdrawing it. The flesh is delicious, resembling pork in 

 flavour, and abounding in fat, which in the colony is de- 

 servedly esteemed the greatest of delicacies. The hide is up- 

 wards of an inch and a half in thickness, and being scarcely 

 flexible, may be dragged from the ribs in strips like the planks 

 from a ship's side." 



Gumming relates that the track of the Hippopotamus may 

 be distinguished from that of any other animal by a line of 

 unbroken herbage which is left between the marks of the feet 

 of each side, as the width of the space between the right and 

 left legs causes the animal to place its feet so considerably 

 apart, as to make a distinct double track. 



This is supposed by many to be the animal called Behemoth 

 in Scripture. 



