TREE-FEEDING ANIMALS. 161 



however strong or sharp, are able to stop the rush of 

 the heavier pachydermatous animals, such as the 

 elephant, * or the buffalo, whose weight and strength 

 enables them to tear through everything. We men- 

 tion these facts in order that the " gentlemen of England 

 who live at home at ease " may realize some of the 

 difficulties of hunting in the tropical forest. 



Now all the very largest quadrupeds, still existing 

 among the fauna of our earth, are tree-feeders: that 

 is to say, their food chiefly consists of underwood, or 

 the twigs and foliage of the smaller trees, which 

 according to the high authority of Mr. Darwin, con- 

 tains much nutriment in a small bulk. African 

 elephants for instance, according to the En cy clop & did 

 Britannica, are almost exclusively tree-feeders especi- 

 ally of mimosas, one of the most thorny [kinds of dwarf 

 trees. Hence these heavy quadrupeds may be regarded 

 as being strictly speaking beasts of the forest, and 

 visitors only to the plains country, to which their ex- 

 cursions are made mostly by night ; daybreak, or soon 

 afterwards, finding them once more beneath the shadow 

 of the trees, which Nature has evidently intended as 

 their more permanent home. 



No species of heavy game animals answers more 

 closely to these conditions than the buffalo (Bos Caffir) 

 \vhich range over an immense area of the African 

 continent. 



As these splendid animals never go far from cover, 

 unless under the compulsion of failure of water or 

 food, they may be classed among the regular habitants 



* According to Mr. Darwin the average weight of a full-grown elephant 

 is about 5 tons. One killed at Exeter Change was partly weighed and 

 was estimated at 5 tons. See A Naturalist's Voyage in H.M.S. 

 Beagle, by Chas. Darwin, I4th Edit, 1879, p. 87. 



VOL. III. II 



