376 ON THE FOSSIL BOXES OF PACnYDERMATOUS QUADRUFEDS. 



All that was necessary for this, was to estimate the degree of reduction 

 requisite to make it suit my little skeleton, or, what amounted to the 

 same thing, how many times the length of the head is comprehended 

 in the entire length of the body of the adult : the external dimensions 

 given by divers authors, and the stuffed subjects within my reach, 

 made it easy for me to calculate this proportion, but I did not find 

 it equal tliroughout. 



According to Zerenghi for instance, the entire body is 11' 1'\ the 

 head 2' A"^ or a little more than a fifth. 



According to Columna 13 — 3, or a little less than a fourth. 



The figure of Columna gives the proportion of the head to the body 

 as 2 to 7. 



According to Daubenton, the body of the foetus was V 3" 1'" , the 

 head 5" 3'", or more than a third. 



The hippopotamus of Leyden, according to Allamand, was %' 4" ^"' , 

 the head V II", or a little less than a fourth. 



The hippopotamus of the Hague, according to Klockner, was 13', 

 the head 2' 9", or a little less than a fourth. 



The figure cf the small hippopotamus of Chantilly, gives the pro- 

 portion of the head to the body as 1 to 4. 



According to Gordon, the body of the male is 11 '4" 9'", the head 

 2' 8''; corresponding, nearly, with the dimensions given by Zerenghi : 

 that of the female 11, the head 2' 4". 



From these different proportions I considered that, without deviating 

 far from the truth, I might give the head about a fourth of the total 

 length of the body, not comprehending the tail ; and it was upon this 

 scale that I perfected the skeleton which has served as the basis of the 

 comparisons of my first edition ; but I have since had the good fortune 

 to procure materials more copious and precise. 



In 1811, I observed in the very fine Museum of the late M. Brugmans 

 at Leyden, the extremities of a middle aged hippopotamus perfectly en- 

 tire ; and, in 1820, my anxious wishes were at length gratified by the 

 arrival of an entire skeleton of a full grown hippopotamus, which I 

 had long endeavoured to procure in every direction, and which M. 

 Delalande, a naturalist in the service of the Museum, succeeded in pro- 

 curing at very great expense and personal risk, on the banks of a 

 stream called the Berg-river, forty leagues beyond the city of the Cape. 



From this skeleton, unique in Europe at the present moment, I have 

 di-awn my new figures and rectified my former description. 



ARTICLE II. 



GSTEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



I. The Head. 



Though the head of the hippopotamus resembles that of the pig in 

 the details of its sutures and the connexion of its bones, yet it does not 

 fail to present us with a very extraordinary shape, when, we coine to 

 consider its general conformation. 



1st. By the right line of the forehead, from the occipital crest to the 

 edge of the nose, («, 6, plate 31, figs. 1 and 2). 



