THE PIGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS I I 5 



perhaps he remembers it as a huge, inert mass, 

 reposing, uncouth and hideous, on its bed of straw. 

 Nevertheless, as the remains of pigmy elephants 

 have been found in the caverns of Malta,^ so also 

 the great hippopotamus of to-day has a dwarf 

 congener barely the size of a heifer, inhabiting a 

 restricted area of Western Africa, and perhaps 

 also ranging into the Congo Forest. 



The pigmy hippopotamus {Hippopota7mts libei'i- 

 ensis) stands about thirty inches high at the 

 shoulder, and measures about sixty-five inches in 

 lencrth, exclusive of the short tail. The averaofe 

 weio-ht of the animal is said to be about four 

 hundred pounds, and the maximum estimated 

 weight (probably seldom attained) is seven hundred 

 pounds : the males are larger than the females. 

 Living specimens are slaty-black on the back, 

 greenish grey on the sides, and greyish white 

 beneath, but the hues of the skin probably vary 

 according to the moisture or dryness of the hide : 

 at any rate a very little observation of the common 

 hippopotamus in menageries will show that the 

 larger species, when recently emerged,, is brownish- 

 blue above and reddish below, but that when dry 

 it is blackish-brown. The same rule may apply 

 more or less closely to its dwarf congener. 



Although to the superficial observer the pigmy 



1 Curiously enough the bones of giant dormice have also been found 

 in these caves. 



