MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 2C5 



shaggy fringe of coarse grizzly hair ; and lastly the four uncanny warta upon 

 the face. Where could you find a more repulsive type of countenance ? To a 

 great extent however the Wart Hog's looks belie his character, and while 

 admitting that his style of beauty is not calculated to engender love at first 

 sight, my own experience of him is, that the more you see of him, the better 

 you like him, and that as far as character goes, the race has been much 

 maligned — it has been a case of give a Hog a bad name and hang him. 



Eowland Ward in his " Records of Big Game " writes: — " It is an undoubted 



fact that neither of the African Wild Boars — the Wart Hog and Bush Pig 



exhibit anything like the pluck and determination of their Asiatic or even 

 European cousins " and I have seen strictures of the same kind in the writ- 

 ings of other sportsmen, but I am at a loss to know what has given rise to 

 them, I hope, and cannot help believing, that they are calumnies and that 

 the contempt for the grizzly boar of Africa, which has from time to time 

 been given expression to, is bred not of familiarity, but of the want of 

 it. The reasons for the want of it are not far to seek. The ground where 

 the Wart Hog is found is often fair hunting country enough, and though he 

 is mainly a night feeder, solitary boars and small sounders are often encoiyi- 

 tered in undisturbed jungles, either on their way home in the early morn- 

 ing, or when starting out to feed in the evening — in fact in cool weather I 

 have not infrequently seen them at all hours of the day, but the truth is 

 that the sportsmen who usually meet with and record their impressions of 

 the animal are men on long shooting expeditions of several months' duration 

 hampered with large caravans and having no horse flesh with them of a class 

 fit for a long burst after a pig, No highly bred horse accustomed to careful 

 grooming and feeding will stand much marching in Somali Land away from 

 the Coast. You cannot carry large quantities of forage for your quadru- 

 peds, it would largely increase the size and cost of your caravan at the 

 start, and the supply once exhausted could not be replenished. The pony 

 indigenous to the country and endowed to a great extent with the habits of 

 his Somali master, is the only one of any use on a long trip. His wants as 

 regards care and toilet are few, he lives on what grass he can pick up and 

 can go for much longer without food or water than his civilised brother and 

 when he cannot get water he has no objection to milk. On an ordinary 

 Shikar expedition he is probably seldom taken out of a walk and only used 

 when changing camp or for riding for a short spell when the sportsman is 

 tired of walking. He is not shod and after a time is generally more or less 

 footsore and tender. It will therefore be readily imagined that pursuit of 

 the wily boar on such a mount would be a source ■ of very little pleasure 

 either to the horse or his rider. 



Consequently, in drawing comparisons between the Wart Hog and the 

 Indian or European boar, it must be remembered that the former usually falls 

 to the rifle and not to the spear. One can easily understand that a prod or 



