he night.

If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred individuals,
is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and suddenly becomes aware
of a threatening danger--as, for instance, a prowling leopard--they all
utter the most singular noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and
growling. The old males go to the edge and look down into the valley,
fuss about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws against
the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young ones seek their
mother's protection and keep behind them.

Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a
cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest
commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in
chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and
surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no
damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they
halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at
their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be
vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of
the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to
continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting
dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons,
but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned
round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly
turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time,
most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few
remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the
onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder,
while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one
alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no
heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling
them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming
sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his
protege. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the
young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their
friends.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy,
and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also i