45 o UNGULATES. 



On the banks of the White Nile, Sir S. Baker states that the favourite haunts 

 of hippopotami are the dense masses of tall reeds fringing the river. There 

 they pass a considerable portion of their time in marshy retreats among the canes ; 

 such dens would be impervious to human beings, and would not be observed 

 unless from a vessel upon the river. The tangled mass of vegetation is pierced 

 in numerous places by dark tunnels, which have been bored out by their bulky 

 forms, and these gloomy routes form their channels of retreat, where they retire 

 to sleep. Females, with their calves, are especially fond of these impervious 

 bowers, where they are secure from all chances of molestation by man or beast. 



The hippopotamus is a purely herbivorous animal, and from its gigantic bulk 

 consumes an enormous amount of food. The capacious stomach, which, when 

 extended, measures some 11 feet in length, is indeed capable of containing between 

 five and six bushels, which gives some idea of the vast quantity of nutriment the 

 creature requires. In uncultivated districts, grass and various water-plants more 

 especially the lotus and papyrus afford the chief food-supply; but where the 

 land adjoining the rivers is under cultivation, the damage done to growing crops of 

 rice, millet, maize, and sugar by hippopotami is incalculable. It is not only the 

 amount they actually eat (although this is large enough), but the quantity damaged 

 in their passage from one part of a field to another. Water-plants are dragged 

 up by the roots from the beds of rivers and lakes, when not too deep, by the 

 hippopotamus in its capacious mouth, and after being brought to the surface, 

 are devoured at leisure. When starting for their nocturnal excursions in the 

 fields, these animals seldom leave the river till about an hour after sunset, and do 

 not return till dawn. On such expeditions they make a prodigious snorting and 

 grunting, which may be heard for long distances. 



There is usually but a single offspring produced at a birth, and Sir S. Baker 

 says that he has never seen a female hippopotamus accompanied by more than two 

 calves. The period of gestation is a little short of eight months, and it would seem 

 that the young may be brought forth at any season of the year. The mother, as 

 we have already noticed, is sedulous in her attention to her offspring, but the male 

 is apt to be evilly disposed towards it. Males, according to Sir S. Baker's 

 account, are constantly fighting among themselves at night, and apparently irre- 

 spective of any particular pairing-season ; and it is also stated by the same observer 

 that a wounded animal may be furiously attacked by a comrade. 



The full age attained by the hippopotamus in its wild state has not been 

 ascertained, but, since a calf brought to the London Zoological Society's Gardens 

 in 1850 survived till 1878, the span of life must be considerable. 



In disposition the hippopotamus is generally described as comparatively timid, 

 but when a boat passes unexpectedly into the middle of a sleeping herd, or comes 

 close to a solitary individual at night, the results are apt to be serious. Sir S. 

 Baker says that, when travelling by night in an ordinary boat on the Nile, " there 

 is no possibility of escape should a hippopotamus take into his head that your 

 vessel is an enemy. The creature's snort may be heard at a few yards' distance 

 in the darkness, and the next moment you may be overturned by an attack from 

 beneath, where the enemy was unseen." Dr. Livingstone relates how that on the 

 Chobi a solitary male issued from its lair and charged some of his company with 



