20G JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XII. 



even a fair thrust with a spear would be an incentive rather to courage than 

 to cowardice, but what animal of the Wart Hog's size would have any fight 

 left in him after the receipt of mh express bullet in his vitals, propelled by 4 

 or 5 drams of powder? Fairly ridden with a spear, is there any evidence 

 forthcoming to show, or evidence to suppose, that a well furnished African 

 boar will not acquit himself as valiantly as the congener of this continent ? 



Of South Africa I have no firsthand experience in this connection, but I 

 have met a good many South African sportsmen and have never heard or 

 read of any systematic hunting of the Wart Hog with a spear in that quarter. 

 Captain C. J. Melliss of the Bombay Army is the only man who, to my 

 knowledge, has scientifically pigsticked him, and I am sure I shall have that 

 good sportsman with me when I essay to clear the character of the Ethio- 

 pian Hog from what I believe to be unmerited charges of want of pluck. 

 Captain Melliss has given a graphic account of his experiences while at 

 Zaila at the end of his book " Lion Hunting on Somali Land ", and tells of 

 many a good-plucked boar that has tried concjusions with him a outrance. 



As I have pointed out above, sportsmen on hunting expeditions in the 

 interior of Somali Land are seldom in a position to tackle the Wart Hog 

 with a spear, but Captain. Melliss was differently situated and did not exploit 

 hiiu under the same conditions. He was quartered at Zaila on military 

 duty and had an Arab horse with him which was a "salted" Indian pigsticker ; 

 and, moreover, his duties being.light, he had no difficulty in occasionally 

 getting out for a week at a time for a quiet pigstick. 



I was there six years later, but by that;time all the jungle within a day's 

 excursion of the coast, which used to hold pig in Captain Melliss' time, had 

 been grazed down or cut for fuel, and as it no longer afforded any cover, 

 the pig had retired to pastures new and further afield. I had in my service 

 his quondam shikari Abdulla who knew all the ground tliat held pig, but I 

 never succeeded in finding them within a day's excursion, and standing orders 

 prohibited my sleeping out the night, so after many unsuccessful attempts 

 to locate them I gave up the quest. 



There is no doubt whatever about the Wart Hog retiring to holes and 

 burrows ; more than one sportsman has witnessed the operation. If handy, 

 they appropriate the earths of other animals, but if not they make use of 

 their tushes to dig their own. In this connection Sir John Willoughby re- 

 lates how he ran a wounded boar to earth, and Captain Melliss on one occa- 

 sion bolted two pigs from a large burrow. 



Setting aside Captain Melliss, whose experiences of the Wart Hog in Somali 

 Land have been unique, we fiud that there are two causes which combine to 

 make the species at all times but a small item in the butchers' bill of shooting 

 expeditions to that happy hunting ground. The first exists perhaps chiefly 

 in the case of the sportsman from India or with Indian experience, who is 

 generally imbued with an instinctive reluctance to kill with the bullet an 



