no THE MAMMALS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



weapons are more rarely used for defence, as the wart-hog, although excitable, 

 and manifesting its excitement by the erect carriage of its tail, is not a courageous 

 animal, and will seldom stand at bay when pursued, even though wounded. When 

 pressed by dogs, it will, however, make a brave stand and inflict severe wounds. 

 In southern and eastern Africa wart-hogs generally occupy the deserted burrows 

 of ant-bears or other animals ; and instead of coming straight out are reported to 

 reach the exit by a kind of somersault. Sportsmen unacquainted with this peculiar 

 mode of exit are liable to be severely injured through not standing in the right 

 place to await the occupant of the burrow. 



Wart-hogs and the other African swine are classed by naturalists 



in the family Suidce, but the two species of hippopotamus are 



regarded as representing by themselves a family — the Hippopotamidce — which is 

 now confined to Ethiopian Africa, although at an earlier epoch of the earth's 

 history it had, like the giraffe family, a much wider range. The ordinary hippo- 

 potamus (Hippopotamus ampihibius) is an animal so familiar to all that but little 

 in the way of description is called for on this occasion. It may be mentioned, 

 however, that the bulky body is supported by such short legs — each terminating in 

 four toes — that it almost touches the ground. The huge, ungainly head, which is 

 generally carried low, is flattened, and terminates in a greatly expanded and truncated 

 muzzle — quite unlike the flattened disc of the swine. Enormous curved tusks, as 

 well as two pairs of incisors, of which the inner ones in the lower jaw are of great 

 size, arm the front of the cavernous mouth. The small eyes and their sockets are 

 remarkably prominent, and the neck is unusually short and thick. Out of the 

 water a hippopotamus appears dark brown, with dirty flesh-coloured patches in the 

 folds of the skin, on the prominent portions of the head, and in certain parts of the 

 lower surface. In the water the usual colour is dull grey, shading to brownish, 

 bluish, or even purple. A length of from 11 to 12 feet, with a shoulder-height of 

 about 56 inches are the dimensions of a good male, whose weight may be as much 

 as four tons. The lower tusks, which are by far the larger, may, in the case of 

 fine specimens, weigh at least 15 lbs. 



The name hippopotamus (river-horse) has been stated to have been applied to 

 the animal on account of its cry resembling to a certain extent the neigh of a horse, 

 but this derivation can scarcely be correct since the male expresses satisfaction by 

 a grunt, and anger by a cry more like the hark of a large dog or the bellow of a 

 bull than the equine neigh. More probable is the suggestion that the outstretched 

 head when seen from one side above the water sufficiently resembles that of a horse 

 to have given origin to the name. The ancient Egyptians displayed a truer 

 appreciation in using the equivalent of river-hog as the designation of this animal, 

 which has no sort of kinship with the horse. In former times hippopotamuses 

 were distributed all over Africa as far north as the Sahara, and in the east up 

 to the delta of the Nile, but between the cataracts of that river and the sea 

 they appear never to have been met with in large numbers. When the Dutch first 

 colonised the Cape of Good Hope hippopotamuses were abundant in the country 

 around, but they have now disappeared from the extreme south, although still found 

 in a few places in the Orange River Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, and Portuguese 

 East Africa. On the west coast they occur in the Cunene and the rivers to the 



