262 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



as much of its time in the water as on land, and never 

 living away from rivers or lakes, the pigmy hippopotamus 

 is an inhabitant of the dense tropical forests of that part 

 of Western Africa which is its home, where it apparently 

 leads a life very similar to that of wild pigs, wallowing 

 in swamps after the manner of those animals, but apparently 

 not habitually frequenting rivers, though it is doubtless, 

 like almost all mammals, able to swim well when the 

 necessity arises. Moreover, in place of associating in large 

 herds after the manner of the common species, and never 

 moving far from one particular locality, the Liberian 

 hippopotamus is a comparatively solitary creature, going 

 about at most only in pairs, and wandering long distances 

 through the woods, where it seems to have no definite 

 place of abode. At the present day the creature appears 

 to be very rare, and there are even rumours that it is 

 extinct. 



Out of a large number of representatives of the genus 

 once spread widely over the Old World, the common 

 and pigmy hippopotamuses, both of which are confined to 

 Africa, are the only species which have survived to the 

 present day ; and the reader will at once see, when we 

 take into consideration the probable habits of the extinct 

 kinds, how fortunate it is that these two widely different 

 forms have been preserved. Were there only the common 

 species, we should have had no conception that any hippo- 

 potamus possessed the habits characterising the smaller 

 kinds, and might thus have been led into drawing very 

 erroneous inferences as to the mode of life and habitat 

 of fossil species. 



The general appearance of the common hippopotamus is 

 so familiar that but little is necessary in the way of descrip- 

 tion. It may be observed, however, that the enormous size 



