Sus. ALT 
externally, but more abundantly inside. A crest of stiff black bristles 
extends from the occiput over the neck and shoulders and down the 
back; the bristles of the throat and breast are reversed, growing 
forwards instead of backwards, the tips being sometimes white; the 
limbs, which are well covered with bristly hair outside, are nearly naked 
within, and the tail is short, slightly hairy, and with a flat tip fringed 
with lateral bristles set like the barbs of a feather. The young are 
more hairy, and are striped with brown and fulvous yellow. 
S1zE,—Head and body, about 5 feet; tail, 1 foot; height, from 
30 to 36 inches. 
This species is so well known to residents in India, not only from 
personal experience but from the numerous accounts of its chase—one 
of the most exciting of Indian field sports—that it would be almost 
superfluous to add anything more to the already redundant porcine 
literature, so I will confine myself to the habits of the animal in the 
jungles. It is gregarious, living in herds, usually called soumnders, the 
derivation of which has often puzzled me as well as others; but 
McMaster says it is to be found in Bailey’s English Dictionary, of 
which the fifteenth edition was published in 1753 as (among hunters) 
a herd or company of swine. An old boar is generally the chief, but 
occasionally he gets driven from the herd, and wanders solitary and 
morose, and is in such a case an awkward customer to tackle. An old 
boar of this kind is generally a match for a tiger; in fact few tigers, 
unless young and inexperienced, would attack one. I have known two 
instances of tigers being killed by boars; one happened a few miles 
from the station of Seonee, to which place we had the animal carried. 
(See Appendix C.) On another occasion, whilst on tour in the district, a 
deputation from a distant village came into my camp to beg of me to 
visit them, and shoot a large boar which had taken possession of a 
small rocky hill, and from it made his nightly forays into their rice 
fields, and was given to attacking those who approached him. I went 
and got the boar out and shot him, but lost a tiger, which also sneaked 
out and broke through a line of beaters; these two were the sole ’ 
occupants of this small isolated knoll, and lived evidently on terms of 
mutual respect. The boar was the largest I had ever seen or killed, 
but, as the sun was getting fierce, and I had far to ride to camp, I regret 
I left him to the villagers without taking any measurements. It is 
allowable to shoot hogs in some hilly parts of India where riding is out 
of the question, otherwise the shooting of a boar in riding country is 
deservedly looked upon as the crime of vulpecide would be in Leicester- 
shire—a thing not to be spoken of. The boar possesses a singular 
amount of courage ; he is probably the most courageous of all animals, 
much more so than the tiger, but unless irritated he is not prone to 
attack at first sight; except in a few cases of solitary individuals, like 
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