CH. IV] WART-HOGS 85 



Potha I shot a wart-hog. It was a good-sized sow, 

 which, in company with several of her half-grown 

 offspring, was grazing near our line of march ; there 

 were some thorn- trees whicli gave a little cover, and I 

 killed her at a hundred and eighty yards, using the 

 Springfield, the lightest and handiest of all my rifles. 

 Her flesh was good to eat, and the skin, as with all our 

 specimens, was saved for the National Museum. I did 

 not again have to shoot a sow, although I killed half- 

 grown pigs for the table, and boars for specimens. This 

 sow and her porkers were not rooting, but were grazing 

 as if they had been antelope ; her stomach contained 

 nothing but chopped green grass. Wart-hogs are 

 common throughout tlie country over which we 

 hunted. They are hideous beasts, witli strange pro- 

 tuberances on their cheeks ; and when alarmed they 

 trot or gallop away, holding the tail perfectly erect, 

 with the tassel bent forward. Usually they are seen in 

 family parties, but a big boar will often be alone. They 

 often root up the ground, but the stomachs of those we 

 shot were commonly filled with nothing but grass. If 

 the weather is cloudy or wet they may be out all day 

 long, but in hot, dry weather we generally found them 

 abroad only in the morning and evening. A pig is 

 always a comical animal ; even more so than is the case 

 with a bear, which also impresses one with a sense of 

 grotesque humour— and this notwithstanding the fact 

 that both boar and bear may be very formidable 

 creatures. A wart-hog standing alertly at gaze, head 

 and tail up, legs straddled out and ears cocked forward, 

 is rather a figure of fun ; and not the less so when, with 

 characteristic suddenness, he bounces round with a grunt 

 and scuttles madly off to safety. Wart-hogs are beasts 

 of the bare plain or open forest, and thougii they will 



