HIPPO PO TAMUS 113 



iuto the water. Six times the courageous beast left the water, and made a 

 determined attack on its pursuers, breaking several spears, while others were 

 blunted against the rocks, and rebounded from off" his hide. The contest lasted 

 three hours, when the spectator killed the animal with a shot between the eyes. 



The pigmy hippopotamus (H. liberiensis), of the west coast, is a veritable 

 dwarf beside its gigantic cousin, measuring only 6 feet in length and 30 inches in 

 height at the shoulder. In addition to its small size, it differs from the typical 

 species by possessing only a single pair of incisor teeth between the lower tusks. 

 The head is more convex or rounded on its upper surface than that of H. am- 

 phibius ; the legs are longer and more slender in proportion, and the eyes do not 

 project out of the head like those of the typical species. Another striking character 

 is the relatively long tail, which is proportionately about twice as long as that of 

 the larger species. The face of the pigmy species is also relatively smaller than 

 that of the large species, this bringing the eyes nearer the middle line of the skull. 

 From recent observations, it appears that the pigmy hippopotamus is not uncommon 

 throughout Sierra Leone and Liberia ; and that as a rule it frequents the densest 

 patches of covert in the forest, rarely leaving such shelter, except at night-time to 

 visit adjacent cultivated land for food. Rivers are in no degree essential to its 

 comfort ; swamps and marshes — especially where there are 2 or 3 feet of soft 

 mud beneath the surface — being far more in favour, provided that such spots are 

 in dense bush, or have such covert within reach. When far from civilisation, these 

 animals feed on roots, wild plums, and the leaves of various shrubs and trees. 

 Their favourite foods are, however, cassava-root, gourds, and maize. These dwarf 

 hippopotamuses appear to be solitary, and do not, as has been suggested, associate 

 in pairs. At night, however, they undoubtedly meet their fellows at favourite 

 spots, such as mud-holes. Nevertheless, although in some parts the bush is a 

 perfect network of tunnels and runs made by these animals, it does not appear that 

 any one such run is used by any other individual than its owner. It is, however, 

 comparatively common to find the tracks of a cow with a well-grown calf at her 

 heels ; and it would seem quite likely that this may have given rise to the idea 

 that the adults usually associate in pairs. In the day-time these hippopotamuses 

 resort to the densest shelter, probably for repose ; but in Sierra Leone and Liberia 

 it is impossible for any man to follow the low, thorny and twisting tunnels through 

 the bush without being detected long before reaching the animal's retreat. 



This account is supplemented by the narrative of a German explorer who 

 brought living specimens to Europe in 1912, and who observes that, unlike their 

 big cousins, pigmy hippopotamuses do not frequent the rivers. On the contrary, 

 they make their home deep in the inhospitable forest, in the dense vegetation, on 

 the banks of the small forest-streams ; but, not satisfied with the protection the 

 forest affords them, they enlarge the hollows which the water has washed out 

 under the banks, and in these tunnels, where they are invisible from the bank, 

 they sleep during the heat of the day. 



Remains of fossil hippopotamuses — some large and some small — have been 

 found over the greater part of southern and central Europe, inclusive of the British 

 Isles, and in North Africa, Madagascar, India, and Burma. One of the Indian species, 

 which is the oldest, as well as that from North Africa, differs from the living 



