THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 285 



* which have no refemblance to thofe of either 

 of thefe animals. The grinding teeth have 

 fome fimilarity to thofe of the buffalo or horfe, 

 though they are much longer. The colour 



of the body is ddfky and blackiih We 



are allured that the hippopotamus produces 

 but one at a time ; that he lives upon fifhes, 

 crocodiles, and even cadaverous flefh. He 

 eats, however, rice, grain, &c. though, if we 

 confider the flructure of his teeth, it would 

 appear that Nature had not deftined him for 

 pah 1 ure, but for devouring other animals.' 

 Zerenghi finifhcs his defcription by inform- 

 ing us, that all thefe meafures had been taken 

 from the female fubjecl:, and that the male per- 

 fectly refembled her, except that, in all his 

 dimenfions, he was one third larger. It were to 

 bewifhed that the figure given by Zerenghi had 

 been equally good as his defcription : This ani- 

 mal, however, was not drawn from the life, but 

 from the fkin of the female. It likewife ap- 

 pears, that Fabius Columna took his figure from 

 the fame fkin, which was preferved in fait. But 

 Columna' s defcription is not equal to that of 

 Zerenghi; and he even merits reproach for men- 

 tioning only the name, and not the work, of this 

 author, though it was publifhed three years before 

 his own. For example, Columna remarks, that, 

 in his time, (1603), Federico Zerenghi brought 

 from Egypt to Italy an entire hippopotamus, 

 preferved in fait, though Zerenghi himfelf tells 



us, 



