180 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 
square ; the muzzle very large. The trun^ 
is immensely thick, and weighs in some 
grown animals not less than three thousaD 
five hundred pounds. His eyes are roun^' 
not very large, but rather prominent ; his 
extremely small, and rather well shaped ; 
legs short and terminated with four toes. 
general colour of the animal has been ap^V 
compared with a light tint of India ink. ^ 
The hippopotamus subsists on grasses a^ 
other vegetable productions ; but, owing 
his natural shyness, except when hunger 
pels him to range at midnight through 
brakes and forests on the borders of the ri^^^^ 
which he frequents, but little is known of 
habits and propensities. However, so much 
know, that, like the elephant, the rhinocet'^^j 
and the tapir, he wallows in the mud deposd^ 
on the banks of rivers, and in this way obtai'^j 
a transient relief from the various insects 
vermin by which he is infested. 
