302 MAMMALIA-MEXICAN HOG. 



may happen to lie in their way ; and which they sometimes completely 

 devastate by rooting in the ground for their favorite food, or devouring such 

 fruits as they find there. If they meet with any thing unusual on their way, 

 they make a terrific clattering with their teeth, and stop and examine the 

 object of their alarm. When they have ascertained that there is no danger, 

 they continue their route without further delay; but if a huntsman should 

 venture to attack them when they are thus assembled in large numbers, he 

 is sure to be surrounded by multitudes and torn to pieces by their tusks, if 

 he is so unwise as to neglect his only chance of escape, which consists in 

 climbing a tree, and thus getting fairly out of their reach. The smaller 

 bands are by no means equally courageous, and always take to flight at the 

 first attack. 



" M. Sonnini relates that he was often, in the course of his travels in 

 Guiana, surrounded by a troop of peccaries infuriated with the havoc made 

 by the muskets of himself and his companions. Mounted upon a tree, he 

 was enabled to observe their motions, and to notice the manner in which 

 they encouraged, by their grunts and by the rubbing of their snouts together, 

 those among them who were injured by the shots which were poured on 

 them from above. With erected bristles, and eyes sparkling with rage, 

 they still maintained their ground ; and it was sometimes only after two or 

 three hours' incessant firing that they were at last compelled to quit the field 

 of battle, and to leave the bodies of the dead to the mercy of the conquerors. 

 These days of victory over the peccaries, he adds, are always days of 

 abundance for the traveller in those immense forests, who has no other re- 

 source except the chase. An enormous gridiron is immediately constructed 

 with sticks fixed in the earth, and three feet in height, over which a quantity 

 of small branches are placed in a transverse direction. On these the pecca- 

 ries are deposited, after being cut in pieces, and are cooked by a slow fire, 

 which is kept up during the Avhole night." 



In its native country, the peccary is rather fond of the mountainous parts, 

 than of the low and level grounds ; it seems to delight neither in the marshes 

 nor the mud, like our hogs ; it keeps among the woods, where it subsists 

 upon wild fruits, roots, and vegetables ; it is also an unceasing enemy to 

 the lizard, the toad, and all the serpent kinds with which the uncultivated 

 forests of the New Continent abound. As soon as it perceives a serpent or a 

 viper, it at once seizes it with its fore hoofs and teeth, skins it in an instant, 

 and devours the flesh. They commit great havoc among the sugar-canes, 

 maize, manihot, and potato crops. 



The young ones follow the dam, and do not separate from her till they 

 have come to perfection. If taken at first, they are very easily tamed, and 

 soon lose all their natural ferocity ; they, however, never display any re 

 markable signs of docility. They only continue to do no mischief; and they 

 may be permitted to run tame, without apprehending any dangerous conse- 

 quences. They seldom stray far from home ; they return of themselves to 



