THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 289 



the bellowing of a buffalo, his ordinary voice 

 may perhaps refemble the neighing of a horfe, 

 from which, however, he differs in every other 

 refpett. If this be the cafe, we may prefume 

 that the animal has obtained the name hippopo- 

 tamus ', which fignifies the river- horfe, folely 

 from the fimilarity of his voice to that of a 

 horfe; in the fame manner as the lynx, from 

 his howling like a wolf, obtained the appella- 

 tion of lupus cervarius *. The cutting, and parti- 

 cularly the canine teeth of the lower jaw, are 

 very long, and fo hard and flrong, that they 

 ftrike fire with fteel f. This circumflance, it is 

 Vol. VI. T probable, 



Egypt- Hift. nat. lib. 4 p. 248. — Merolla fays, that, In the ri- 

 ver Zaira, there are river-horfes, which neigh like the com- 

 mon horfe ; Hijl. gen. des voyages, p. M. I' Abbe Prevojl, tim. 5. 

 p. 95. — This animal has derived his name from his neighing 

 like a horfe ; Recueil des Voyages de la Compagnie des hides de 

 Hollande, to?::. 4. p. 440. — The neigh of the hippopotamus dif- 

 fers little from that of a horfe ; but it is fo loud as to be heard 

 diftmcllyat the diftance of more than a quarter of a league; 

 Voyage an Senegal, p.ir M. Adanfon,p. 73. 



* See the article Lynx, vol. v. p. 206. 



■\ Tutti i denti fono di foftantza coli dura, che percofTovi 

 fopra con un cortello, o accialino, buttano faville di foco in 

 gran quantita, ma piu le zanne che gli altri ; ma dentro noa 

 fono di tanto dura materia ; Zere?!ghi, p. 72. ... Dcntes 

 habebat in inferiore maxilla fex, quorum bini exteriores e 

 regione longi femipedem, lati et trigoni uncias duas cum 

 dimidio, per ambitum femipedem, aprorum modo parum re- 

 trorfum deciives, non adunci, non exerti, fed admodum con- 

 fpicui aperto ore. Intermedii vero parum a gingiva exerti 

 trigona acie digitali longitudine, medium locum occupantes, 

 veluti jacentes craffi, orbicuiati, elephantini femipedem fupe- 

 rant longitudine, atque aciem in extremis partibus planam 



parum 



