THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 149 



in length, which, among other things, is distin- 

 guished by the remarkable shortness of the face as 

 compared with the total length of the skull. This 

 animal, which is met with in Siberia, has been 

 classed apart from the hippopotamus as a distinct 

 species under the name of Choeropsis. As, more- 

 over, the dentition is not quite the same, this 

 separation may be allowed to pass ; but both 

 species are and remain ' river-horses,' and all that 

 has been said above applies to the smaller species 

 as well. 



It is only quite recently that we have become 

 more intimately acquainted with a third species, 1 

 the Hippopotamus madagascariensis, which, as re- 

 gards size it became some 7 feet long while the 

 Nile horse attains 11 feet fills the gap between 

 the two African species, and as regards skull and 

 dentition approaches very close to the Hippopot- 

 amus ampliibius. Its occurrence is extremely in- 

 teresting, inasmuch as it leads from Africa over to 

 Madagascar, where its remains were found in 

 marshy deposits together with those of the colossal 

 bird ^Epyornis. Its having been found in company 



1 Goldberg, ' Undersogelser over en subfossil flodhest fra 

 Madagascar,' Christiania Videnskabs selskabs 

 1883, No. 6. 



