45° 
UNGULATES. 
On the banks of the White Nile, Sir S. Baker states that the favourite haunts 
of hippopotami are the dense masses of tall reeds fringing the river. There 
they pass a considerable portion of their time in marshy retreats among the canes; 
such dens would be impervious to human beings, and would not be observed 
unless from a vessel upon the river. The tangled mass of vegetation is pierced 
in numerous places by dark tunnels, which have been bored out by their bulky 
forms, and these gloomy routes form their channels of retreat, where they retire 
to sleep. Females; with their calves, are especially fond of these impervious 
bowers, where they are secure from all chances of molestation by man or beast. 
The hippopotamus is a purely herbivorous animal, and from its gigantic bulk 
consumes an enormous amount of food. The capacious stomach, which, when 
extended, measures some 11 feet in length, is indeed capable of containing between 
five and six bushels, which gives some idea of the vast quantity of nutriment the 
creature requires. In uncultivated districts, grass and various water-plants—more 
especially the lotus and papyrus—afford the chief food-supply; but where the 
land adjoining the rivers is under cultivation, the damage done to growing crops of 
rice, millet, maize, and sugar by hippopotami is incalculable. It is not only the 
amount they actually eat (although this is large enough), but the quantity damaged 
in their passage from one part of a field to another. Water-plants are dragged 
up by the roots from the beds of rivers and lakes, when not too deep, by the 
hippopotamus in its capacious mouth, and after being brought to the surface, 
are devoured at leisure. When starting for their nocturnal excursions in the 
fields, these animals seldom leave the river till about an hour after sunset, and do 
not return till dawn. On such expeditions they make a prodigious snorting and 
grunting, which may be heard for long distances. 
There is usually but a single offspring produced at a birth, and Sir S. Baker 
says that he has never seen a female hippopotamus accompanied by more than two 
calves. The period of gestation is a little short of eight months, and it would seem 
that the young may be brought forth at any season of the year. The mother, as 
we have already noticed, is sedulous in her attention to her offspring, but the male 
is apt to be evilly disposed towards it. Males, according to Sir S. Baker’s 
account, are constantly fighting among themselves at night, and apparently irre¬ 
spective of any particular pairing-season ; and it is also stated by the same observer 
that a wounded animal may be furiously attacked by a comrade. 
The full age attained by the hippopotamus in its wild state has not been 
ascertained, but, since a calf brought to the London Zoological Society’s Gardens 
in 1850 survived till 1878, the span of life must be considerable. 
In disposition the hippopotamus is generally described as comparatively timid, 
but when a boat passes unexpectedly into the middle of a sleeping herd, or comes 
close to a solitary individual at night, the results are apt to be serious. Sir S. 
Baker says that, when travelling by night in an ordinary boat on the Nile, “there 
is no possibility of escape should a hippopotamus take into his head that your 
vessel is an enemy. The creature’s snort may be heard at a few yards’ distance 
in the darkness, and the next moment you may be overturned by an attack from 
beneath, where the enemy was unseen.” Dr. Livingstone relates how that on the 
Chobi a solitary male issued from its lair and charged some of his company with 
