184 VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



ally, during the day, they were to be seen basking 

 on the shore amid ooze and mud ; but shots were 

 more constantly to be had at their uncouth heads 

 when protruded from the water to draw breath ; and 

 if killed, the body rose to the surface. Vulnerable 

 only behind the ear, which is placed on a prominence, 

 so as to resemble the garret windows of a Dutch 

 house, they require the perfection of rifle practice, 

 and, after a few shots, become exceedingly shy, ex- 

 hibiting the snout only, and as instantly withdrawing 

 it. Of all the mammalia whose portraits, drawn from 

 ill-stuffed specimens, have been foisted upon the 

 world, the Behemoth has perhaps been the most 

 ludicrously misrepresented. I sought in vain for 

 that colossal head for those cavern -like jaws, gar- 

 nished with elephantine tusks or those ponderous 

 feet with which ' the formidable and ferocious 

 quadruped ' is wont * to trample down whole fields 

 of corn in a single night.' Defenceless and inoffen- 

 sive, his shapeless carcass is but feebly supported 

 upon short and disproportionate legs, and his belly 

 almost trailing upon the ground, he may not inaptly 

 be likened to an overgrown ( prize pig.' The co- 

 lour is pinkish brown, clouded and freckled with 

 a darker tint. Of many that we shot, the largest 

 measured less than five feet at the shoulder ; and the 

 reality falling so lamentably short of the monstrous 

 conception I had formed, the ' River-horse,' or ' Sea- 

 cow,' was the first, and, indeed, the only South 

 African quadruped in which I felt disappointed."* 

 * Wild Sports of South Africa, p. 218. 



