HISTORY OF QJJADRUPEDS. i6 3 



The HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



The great difficulties that have always attended a com- 

 plete inveftigation of this huge animal, have arifen as 

 well from the remotenefs of its fituation, as from its pe- 

 culiar habits and difpofition. 



Though the Hippopotamus has been celebrated from 

 the remoter!: antiquity ; though the facred writings men- 

 tion him under the name of Behemoth ; and though his fi- 

 gure is to be feen engraven on Egyptian obelifks, and on 

 Roman medals •, yet his hiftory was very imperfectly 

 known to the ancients. Ariflotle fays, that he has a 

 mane like a Horfe, and hoofs like an Ox ; tulks and tail 

 like a Boar; that he is of the fize of an Afs, and has the 

 voice of a Horfe ; with other things equally abfurd ; — all 

 which Pliny has copied ; and, inftead of correcting, has 

 added to the number of his errors. — Of the accounts of 

 later writers, it is much to be lamented that fuitable de- 

 lineations have not accompanied their accurate defcrip- 

 tions— *A general defect, by which the ftudy of nature 



L2 



