PACHYDERMATA.] THE HIPPOPOTAMUS-HOG-WILD BOAR. with his trunk, an instrument too remarkable to have been passed over by the sacred writer in the book of Job; nor would he have alluded to the river Jordan in connexion with that animal, which is neither a native of Syria nor of Egypt; while, on the other hand, as the Hippopotamus and the crocodile were both common on the Nile, they may have, and most probably did in ancient days infest the lakes and rivers of the adjacent regions. Besides, the creature is painted as untamable, and not to be conquered by man: "He that made him can make his sword to approach him;" he only can subdue his wrath and power. The Romans were well acquainted with the Hippopotamus, which, with other rare and singular animals, was exhibited in triumphal processions, or sacrificed in combats of the arena. Augustus celebrated his triumph over Cleopatra by an exhibition of this beast as a fit emblem of conquered Egypt. The Hippopotamus is little inferior in bulk to the elephant; the body is totally devoid of grace, shapeless and uncouth; the head is large, the mouth wide, and the muzzle covered with thick bristles; the limbs are massive and short, the belly almost touching the ground; the hide is 79 dense and tough, and over the ribs is spread a deep layer of oily fat, which is reckoned a delicacy by the colonists of Southern Africa, and preserved by salting. The uniform colour is light Indian ink. The enormous quantity of food necessary for the support of this monstrous beast, may be conceived from the circumstance of Mr. Burchell finding six bushels of chewed grass in the stomach of one he examined. The usual pace of the Hippopotamus on land is slow and heavy, though it can run with swiftness for a short distance; its home is, however, in the river, where it is perfectly at ease, swimming, diving, or walking at the bottom with the utmost facility. Here, if provoked or wounded, it is very formidable, attacking its aggressors with fury, and roaring at the same time so as to collect others to its assistance. This animal produces one young at a birth, which is said to take to the water immediately. Our knowledge, however, of the habits of the Hippopotamus is still deficient. We subjoin a sketch of the skull of this extraordinary creature, and of the surface of the first molar tooth of the lower jaw. Skull of the Hippopotamus, and surface of its first molar Tooth. Our next group of Pachydermatous animals is that comprising the swine, and several allied species, which, though forming one or two distinct genera, are all connected to each other by strong characters of affinity. The universal features are a coarse hide, mostly covered with bristles; an elongated muzzle, terminated by an abrupt snout, and adapted for rooting up the earth; small eyes, large and strong canine teeth, and feet, except in one genus, divided into four toes, of which the two middle are large and encased in strong hoofs, the lateral being shorter, so as scarcely to touch the ground. The first genus (Sus, LINN.) comprehends the true swine: the incisors are six in each jaw, those of the lower being horizontal; the enormous canine teeth protrude from the mouth, having in both jaws an upward curve, and fitting upon each other; the molars are seven on each side, the anterior being compressed, the posterior tuberculous; toes four. ant of a race still wild in the larger forests of Europe, Asia, and the northern parts of Africa. The wild race may, however, be distinguished from our domesticated breed, by the colour, which is a dark grizzled brown, by the greater length of limb, the small erect ears, the greater developement of the snout, and by a more bony appearance. It is easily reclaimed. In his native forest, the WILD BOAR is a most formidable animal, and when hard beset defends himself with great energy and resolution, his strength and tusks rendering him a terrific opponent. The hazardous chase of this animal was once a favourite diversion, and in Germany and the wooded regions of Europe is still eagerly followed. The hunting of the Wild Boar is also one of the sports of the East: often the hunter pays the forfeit of his rashness with his life, and the dogs that press the infuriated animal too closely are sure to fall; nor is the mounted horseman always safe from the impetuosity of his sud den attack. The most familiar example is that of the well The old males are said to live solitarily, never known HoG, (Sus scrofa, LINN.) of which we congregating with the general herd, which conneed only say, that it is the domesticated descend-sists only of females and their young, for which the 80 THE MASKED WILD BOAR-BABIROUSSA-PECCARY-COLLARED PECCARY. mothers fight with the utmost fury. The habits, the disposition, and the voracious appetite of the Domesticated Hog, have been proverbial from the earliest time to the present. Forbidden among the Jews as food, the very name of the animal sounded as an abomination in their ears; it was, however, kept for the sake of its flesh by other nations around Judea, and, as we may gather from various allusions by strangers or foreigners, within the territory of Judea also. "Now there was nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding," Mark v. 11; "and they that fed the swine fled," ver. 14. The writers of the sacred volume have generally alluded to this animal in order to strengthen pictures of disgust, violence, or utter degradation. We have an example in point in the parable of the prodigal, Luke xv., where we find the young man represented as going into a far country, where he joined himself to a citizen, who, to finish his degraded condition, a condition to which his sinful course had brought him, "sent him into his fields to feed swine." Again, in Psalm lxxx., the Boar is exhibited as an instrument of ravaging destruction. The church, beautifully figured as a vine brought out of Egypt, and preserved amidst the assaults of the heathen, is described as utterly desolate, its hedges broken down, while "the Boar out of the wood doth waste it," ver. 13. Besides the common Wild Boar, the genus includes several other species, especially from Africa, noted for their powers and ferocity. The most remarkable appears to be the MASKED WILD BOAR, (Sus larvatus, F. Cuv.) an animal inhabiting Madagascar and the central regions of Africa, and rendered doubly hideous by the presence of a fleshy mass supported on a bony prominence arising beneath the eyes and stretching on towards the snout, so as to give the face a swollen and distorted appearance; its manners, except that it is said to be extremely ferocious, are those of the European species. The islands of the Indian Archipelago afford the BABIROUSSA, (Sus babiroussa,) distinguished from the rest of its genus by its lighter form, longer limbs, the narrow contour of its head, and especially by the long recurved canine teeth of the male, which bend back from the sides of the mouth, like curling horns over the forehead, those of the upper jaw being most developed. The skin of the Babiroussa is black, naked, and warty. If minutely examined, it is however found to be sparingly set with short bristly hairs, imperceptible even to a close by-stander. We notice this point the more particularly, because, having examined a specimen brought in a preserved state to England, we are able to correct an erroneous idea of some authors, who state the animal to be covered with short woolly fur. On the contrary, the skin is coarse, and as naked as that of the hippopotamus. The contour of the animal is truly swinish. The recurved tusks of the upper jaw, instead of passing out between the lips, pierce through the skin half way between the eyes and the end of the snout, so as to appear like crooked horns, growing rather lower down than usual. The alveoli, or sockets of these teeth, [PACHYDERMATA. turn upwards, covered by the upper lip, and pressing against the skin of the upper surface of the snout, through which these canines have to cut their way in rising: the direction of the socket from which they spring influences the perpendicular line of their growth. It is difficult to ascertain the utility of instruments like these; the early writers supposed that they served as hooks, by means of which the animal rested the weight of its head on a branch during sleep; but this explanation is fabulous; nor will we venture a supposition, where observation can alone decide. The ancients appear to have been acquainted with the present animal, as Pliny notices a wild boar found in India having horns on the forehead; and a writer of the sixth century mentions an Indian animal under the name of "swine deer," (xoloɛλapoç,) a term aptly designating the Babiroussa. It has never, we believe, been brought alive to Europe: it is, however, capable of being domesticated, and its flesh, good and palatable, is well adapted for food. Fond of the water, it swims with great ease and dexterity, crossing, it is said, without any difficulty the straits which intervene between neighbouring islands. Its food and manners are those of its race. Separated from the true swine, to which, however, in general appearance, disposition, and propensities, they are closely united, the PECCARIES constitute a separate genus under the name of Dicotyles. Their gait, their habits of rooting in the earth, their clothing of bristles, their grunt, their manner of clashing the teeth, and raising the mane when angry, together with their great susceptibility of domestication, would almost seem to render the expediency of the separation questionable. They exhibit, however, points of difference which warrant the division: in the first place, although the grinders and incisor teeth resemble in form those of the swine, they differ in number, the incisors being four instead of six in the upper jaw, the molars in each jaw six instead of seven on each side; the tusks also do not take the character of those of the hog, turning up and projecting out of the mouth, but have the usual direction as in other animals. Again, the hind feet have only three toes, the external toe on each foot being wanting; added to this, the limbs are more slender, the head shorter, the snout longer than in the hog, and the tail is merely rudimentary, so as not to be visible. Another character consists in a large glandular apparatus on the middle of the loins, immediately below the skin, which pours out a fluid of disgusting odour, infecting the flesh when the animal is killed, and effectually barring the introduction of the species into our list of domestic quadrupeds. Two species of Peccary are known, both natives of South America, where they frequent the thickest and most extensive forests, dwelling in holes of the earth or in hollow trees, and seldom approaching human habitations. Occasionally, however, they venture into cultivated grounds, and commit great havoc upon the plantations of maize and sugar-cane. Of the two species, one is known as the COLLARED PECCARY, or the Patira, (Dicotyles PACHY DERMATA.] WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY-THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS. torquatus, Cuv.;) (see Engraving, No. 43;) the other as the WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY, (D. labiatus, Cuv.) The Collared Peccary is generally met with in pairs, or at most in small families; its food consisting of roots and vegetables, which it searches for in the ground: it is itself the common prey of that_tyrant of South American forests, the jaguar. It derives its name of "collared" from a line of white which passes from the fore part of the neck obliquely upwards to meet over the shoulders. The White-lipped Peccary is larger, stronger, and more robust in all its proportions; it does not live in pairs, but in immense herds, consisting often of a thousand individuals, which traverse extensive districts, crossing rivers, and ravaging plantations in their march. Thus collected, they are not to be attacked with impunity, and even their foe, the jaguar, only ventures to seize a straggler, by an unexpected though fatal spring. Sonnini relates that, while travelling in Guiana, he was often surrounded by herds of Peccaries, rendered desperate by the slaughter committed among them by the fire-arms of his party. Mounted upon a tree, so as to be safe from their assault, (the only mode of eluding their revenge,) he was at liberty to observe their motions, and notices their grunting by way of mutual encouragement; their mode of rubbing their snouts together in token of congratulation; and the rage and agitation displayed by their sparkling eyes and erected bristles, as their ranks were thinned by the incessant firing, till at length the remnant were obliged to retreat in despair. The present species is at once distinguished by the absence of the collar, and by the under lip, the sides of the mouth, and the top of the nose being white. In addition to the vegetable food, upon which the Peccaries subsist, like the hog, they do not refuse animal diet, and wage a war of destruction upon lizards and serpents, which they devour with great avidity; nor would they, we suspect, refuse any offal that fell in their way. Our next genus is that of Rhinoceros, (ov, the nose, kɛpaç, a horn.) Africa, India, Java, and Sumatra, lands of the forest and jungle, where beneath a torrid sun nature assumes her most gigantic forms, are respectively the native regions of five distinct species composing the present genus. 81 fibres, which increase by the addition of fresh matter at the roots. Swampy situations near large rivers, and verdant plains, especially where water abounds, are the localities they frequent; herbs and the succulent shoots of shrubs form their food. The records of antiquity often prove to us that our discoveries have been anticipated; so it is in the present instance. The ancients were not only acquainted with the one-horned Rhinoceros of India, (Rh. Indicus,) the species which alone in modern times, and that rarely, has been brought alive to Europe, but with one, if not both, of the two-horned African species; animals recently introduced to science, and of which one, the Rh. Burchellii, is as yet barely admitted into the catalogue of authentic mammalia. Pompey appears to be the first who brought the Rhinoceros to Europe, one having graced his triumph; but at the festival of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, an Ethiopian species was exhibited among the rare animals brought forward on that occasion. After the death of Cleopatra, Augustus exposed two single-horned Rhinoceroses and a hippopotamus to the slaughter of the arena. Pausanias describes the two-horned species as a native of Africa, under the name of the Ethiopian Bull; and we find the same species on some of the medals of the emperor Domitian. From this period different species were from time to time exhibited in the reigns of Antonius, Heliogabalus, Gordian, and others. During the middle ages, when the western world was immersed in darkness, the remembrance of the Rhinoceros, and of many rare animals familiar to the ancients, passed away; till, on the revival of letters, science began to dawn, and men again inquired after those extraordinary productions of nature, not for the sake of swelling the pomp of a triumphal procession, or the senseless and brutal slaughter of the arena, but in order to collect facts upon which science is to build; to examine the laws by which life is governed or species distributed; and so trace out, in as far as possible, that plan of order and unity which characterises the works of the Cre ator. The INDIAN RHINOCEROS (Rh. Indicus) is, however, as we have said, the only species which has ever been brought alive to modern Europe; Of bulk scarcely less than the elephant, of but, as all agree in habits and manners, our demassive proportions and enormous strength, their scription will be general and comprehensive. generic characters may be thus summed up. The The proportions of the Rhinoceros are extremely incisor teeth are either altogether wanting, or heavy, and its powers prodigious; scarcely less are four in each jaw; the canines are always clumsy than the hippopotamus, its figure is not wanting; the molars are seven on each side, unlike that of a monstrous hog, to which it bears above and below; those of the upper jaw have a also a similarity in its voice, habits, temper, and square surface presenting several projecting lines, gluttonous appetite. The limbs are short and and those of the lower an irregular crown with thick; the ears moderate and erect; the eyes projecting eminences. The feet are divided into very small and deeply set, the sphere of vision three toes; the skin is naked, thick, and solid; being limited; but the hearing and smell are the bones forming the vaulted roof of the nose highly acute. Harmless and quiet if unprovoked, very strong, and supporting one or two solid the roused Rhinoceros is one of the most formihorns adhering solely to the skin, and composed dable of adversaries, his attack being sudden and of longitudinal fibres, appearing on close inspec- impetuous, and his fury blinding him to every tion an agglutinated mass of hairs; these horns fear. "Their smell," says Mr. Burchell," is so are indeed only a cutaneous secretion, the close-keen and nice, that they know, even at a great set pores of the skin sending forth multitudes of distance, whether any man be coming towards G |