Chap, v.] WILD SWINE. I07 



that of most of the typical birds of prey. We met with the 

 l:)ird constantly afterwards on our southern voyage, as far down 

 even as the Arctic Circle ; and a specimen was noticed by Ross 

 further south still, in Possession Island. 



The hut of the Germans was a comfortable one of stone, 

 thatched with tussock, and with a good frame window and door, 

 and comfortable bunks to sleep on. There used to be wild 

 goats on the top of Inaccessible Island, and there are still 

 plenty of wild pigs. The feral pigs were, as the Germans told 

 me, of various colouring, and showed no tendency to uni- 

 formity ; but the goats were almost invariably black, only one or 

 two had a few white markings about head, neck, and chest. 

 The sows used to be seen with litters of seven or eight young, 

 but in a few days the number dwindled to one or two ; the 

 sows probably eating their young. The young suffered often 



BRITISH SKUA, STERCORARILS CATARRACTE5. 



from a sort of scrofula, in which the glands about the neck 

 became much enlarged. 



The pigs now remaining are mostly boars : they are very 

 hairy and have long tusks. The hogs are fierce, and one of 

 the Germans told me that one once regularly hunted him, as 

 if to attempt to kill him for food. The pigs feed mainly on 

 birds and their eggs, but eat also the roots of the tussock and 

 wild celery ; they have nearly exterminated a penguin rookery 

 on the south side of the island, but a few penguins remain, 

 who have learnt to build in holes under stones, where the 

 pigs cannot reach them. 



This fact is curious, as showing how easily circumstances 

 may arise, such, that in an island even so small as Inaccessible, 

 one colony of birds may develop a totally new habit, whilst 

 other colonies of the same species preserve their original cus- 



