Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bearing short, rounded hoofs, and all touching the ground. The large incisor and canine teeth grow continuously; the upper incisors curving outwards, and the lower projecting forwards, while the canines are very large, and those of the upper jaw directed downwards. In the common species, H. amphibius (1340), which till recently ranged over the greater part of Africa, there are two pairs of incisors in each jaw ; but in the much smaller H. liberiensis (1341), of the West Coast, there is generally only one lower pair, although some specimens (like the one exhibited) have two teeth on one side and one on the other. In certain extinct species (as shown in a lower jaw exhibited) there were, however, three pairs of equal-sized incisors in each jaw. Although Hippopotamuses are now restricted to Africa, the common species ranged during the Pleistocene period as far north as England, and a smaller kind existed in Madagascar. In the antecedent Pliocene epoch several kinds flourished in India and Burma, where they survived till the Pleistocene. The common species—of which the numbers and range are now greatly reduced —lives in herds of from twenty to forty in the neighbourhood of rivers, where it finds its food, which consists of grass and aquatic plants. It feeds chiefly by night; and in districts where it is much hunted, spends most of the day in the water. There it is thoroughly at home, not only diving and swimming with facility, but walking easily on the river-bed. The Liberian species is stated to be much less aquatic, and more like a Pig in its habits. The splendid mounted specimen of the ordinary Hippopotamus was presented by Mr. Howland Ward, of Piccadilly. The Peccaries The Peccaries (Dicotyles or Tayassu) of America [Case 65.] differ from the Old World Pigs (ISuidce) in that Family Dicotylidae. the upper canine teeth are directed downwards and have sharp cutting-edges, in the reduction of the number of hind-toes to three, and in the complex structure of the stomach. Moreover, the upper ends of the metacarpal and metatarsal bones of the feet are respectively united. The total number of teeth is thirty-eight, there being cnly two pairs of upper incisors, and three pairs of premolars in each jaw. Peccaries are inhabitants of forest districts, and produce only two young at a birth, which are not spotted or striped with white.