34 SJOSTEDTS KTLIMANDJARO-MERU EXPEDITION. "2. 



Warthogs prefer open ground with scattered groups of bushes and trees and the genuine 

 bush- or grass-steppe. On the latter they are to be found far out on the desolate grounds 

 where every tree and bush has disappeared. Here especially in the tree- and bush-steppe 

 are their favourite haunts and here they roam about in families, or the female with her 

 two youngs, and the boars separately. They are not very shy, their sight is not sharp, 

 and with some precaution they are not very difficult to stalk within shooting range even 

 on the open plains. 



Below Kibonoto was a locality much liked by the Wart-hogs and Prof. SJOSTEDT 

 has written about this in his diary: 0ne hours and a half walk from Kibonoto over Sanya 

 towards Kiraragua the steppe becomes open. The last trees have disappeared, the plains 

 lie flat before the eyes, with the brushwood often burnt black by the fires of the Mas- 

 sais, with small hills like haystacks often consisting only of termite hills covered with grass, 

 and with faded plants. Further away the bushes have disappeared and likewise the 

 termite hills. The great desolate plains are partly covered with a short grass which 

 grows in tufts leaving the grey, dry and stony ground bare between them. In many places 

 the Massais have burnt off the tufts to get fresh green sprouts for their cattle. The steppe 

 is as far as can be seen a yellow partly blackened sea of grass. Among the black burnt 

 bushes in the land lying between the real grass steppe and the mixed forest below the 

 mountain are the regular haunts of the Warthogs. Here they stroll about usually in 

 families among the black-burnt bushes and on the sooty ground which they resemble in 

 colouration so nearly that, if they remain motionless, they are very difficult to perceive 

 at some distance. If the family is disturbed the old boar raises its big head with its 

 formidable looking tusks, the lifted tail is curved as in a baboon, and taking the lead of 

 his company he trots off with raised head, the others following in a file. Sometimes they 

 disappear among the blackened bushes, sometimes they take their course over the open 

 steppe and may then often be seen at a very great distance when they with raised heads 

 listen and then trot off again, their tails all the time being kept in the air but curved. 



A couple of pigs of this kind had been caught quite young and a farmer, Hr DOMKE 

 let his dog nurse them. All went well and the pigs grew up and were very tame, follow- 

 ing their master on his promenades running after him with the tails raised in the air. 

 For their fostermother they became, however, rather troublesome when their size had 

 increased. She appeared, nevertheless to retain a certain liking for them. 



The meat of the Wart-hogs was regarded by BOHM to be ausgezeichnet , but 

 SJOSTEDT says that he made several repeated attempts to eat it but could not, and he 

 found it to be bad-smelling even if it was cut from youngs animals. 



I have not sufficient adult material to decide with full certainty whether this Wart 

 Hog deserves to be regarded as a distinct subspecies or not. (Conf. supplemental notes- 



below.) 



Hippopotamus amphifoius LINNE. 

 (PI. 4, fig. 4.) 



Meru: 2 specimens (2 skeletons and a skin) from the Hippopotamus-lakes, */s 1906. 



The Hippopotamuses were still rather numerous in the Hippopotamus-lakes 



(Lake Merker) between Meru and Kilimandjaro, nearer the former mountain. 18 were 



