TF1E HIPPOPOTAMUS. 179 



did he enjoy it. Like all young creatures in a strange 

 place, he kept a close eye upon his nurse, and gave a 

 peculiar half-bellow half-cry when he went out of his 

 sight, refusing food till his return. 



" Evening soon arrived. Hippo retired to rest by 

 the side of his faithful keeper, who, the next morning, 

 reported that, whereas on ordinary occasions, if he 

 coughed or moved or made the least noise in the night, 

 1 Jamoos' (the Arabic for Hippopotamus) would wake up 

 and answer. The night of his arrival he slept a sound 

 sleep, waking only at sunrise for his breakfast and his 

 bath, which he mightily enjoyed. His skin is now 

 beginning to lose its bark-like appearance ; it is 

 getting soft and shiny, and of a black-pinkish colour, 

 and he promises to grow up into a larger beast than 

 his fellow Hippopotamus in the next cage to him; for 

 ' Buckeet ' comes from the White Nile, in which river 

 the animals grow larger than in the Blue Nile, from 

 whence the two Hippopotami now in the Gardens were 

 brought." 



The slight pinkish hue which is here mentioned is 

 a sign of health. Mr. Baines tells me that when the 

 animals are at liberty in their native river, the ears, 

 nostrils, and ridge over the eyes are of the most glow- 

 ing scarlet, and not merely pink as they are in the 

 animals kept in captivity. 



This brilliancy of colour is very useful to those who 

 hunt the Hippopotamus with fire-arms. As is the case 

 with many semi-aquatic animals, the head is so con- 

 structed that the creature can lie for hours with its 

 body submerged, and nothing showing above the sur- 

 face of the water except its ears, the ridges over the 



