THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



pig, and stands sometimes nearly three feet in height over 

 the shoulder. The head is disproportionately large, with 

 an exceedingly broad and flat forehead, which ends with 

 an almost square muzzle. On each side of the face there 

 are three strange-looking protuberances, or warts, and 

 from these the pig derives its name. The largest of these 

 warts are the two which project right under the eyes, 

 where they grow out to a length of some five to six inches. 

 Sometimes they are so long that the tips fall somewhat 

 down, but otherwise they stand straight out at right angles 

 from the side of the face. No animal could be more 

 hideous-looking than the wart hog, with its almost cylin- 

 drical body, extremely thin legs, and enormous head. The 

 wart hog carries tusks which sometimes attain a length 

 of over twenty inches, although a good average tusk only 

 measures from fifteen to eighteen inches on the curve. 

 Strangely enough, in this species, it is the tusks of the 

 upper jaw that are the longest. They curve in a semi- 

 circle outward and upward until, I have been told, some- 

 times in very old specimens, the tips almost meet, forming 

 a sort of arch over the nose. 



The wart hog does not exclusively frequent swamps 

 and damp places, as has often been asserted, but is more 

 fond of perfectly dry plains and not too dense bush coun- 

 try. I believe it is quite a rare thing to find wart hogs 

 around swamps, as I myself have hunted for weeks around 

 such places as the Ol-Bolossat and other marches of the 

 upper Rift Valley, but I have failed to find any wart 

 hogs in these places. Although this ugly-looking beast 

 is seen to feed along water courses and among the bush 

 that generally lines the banks of rivers, yet it is often 



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