262 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
as much of its time in the water as on land, and never 
living away from rivers or lakes, the pigmy hippopotamus 
is an inhabitant of the dense tropical forests of that part 
of Western Africa which is its home, where it apparently 
leads a life very similar to that of wild pigs, wallowing 
in swamps after the manner of those animals, but apparently 
not habitually frequenting rivers, though it is doubtless, 
like almost all mammals, able to swim well when the 
necessity arises. Moreover, in place of associating in large 
herds after the manner of the common species, and never 
moving far from one particular locality, the Liberian 
hippopotamus is a comparatively solitary creature, going 
about at most only in pairs, and wandering long distances 
through the woods, where it seems to have no definite 
place of abode. At the present day the creature appears 
to be very rare, and there are even rumours that it is 
extinct. 
Out of a large number of representatives of the genus 
once spread widely over the Old World, the common 
and pigmy hippopotamuses, both of which are confined to 
Africa, are the only species which have survived to the 
present day; and the reader will at once see, when we 
take into consideration the probable habits of the extinct 
kinds, how fortunate it is that these two widely different 
forms have been preserved. Were there only the common 
species, we should have had no conception that any hippo- 
potamus possessed the habits characterising the smaller 
kinds, and might thus have been led into drawing very 
erroneous inferences as to the mode of life and habitat 
of fossil species. 
The general appearance of the common hippopotamus is 
so familiar that but little is necessary in the way of descrip- 
tion. It may be observed, however, that the enormous size 
