WART-HOG 399 



THE WART-HOG 



{^PJiacochoerus cethiopicus) 



Bango OR Nguruwi, SWAHILI ; Daritnga, Hausa ; Dofar AND Kar- 

 kari, Somali ; Ikiilnbi, Basuto ; Indaigasana, SwAZi and Zulu ; 

 Indhlovudaxvani, ZULU ; Kolobi, Bechuana ; Kiirkcrrow, Abys- 

 SINL\N ; Ngolobivi, Barotsi and Ngami ; Ngron, M'KuA ; 

 Njiri OR hijiri, ClllLALA AND Chibisa ; Vlak-vark OR Vlakte- 

 vark, Cape Dutch. 



More like the incarnation of the vision of some hideous dream 

 than perhaps any other living animal, the vlakte-vark is the most 

 specialised, and at the same time the most hideous, African representa- 

 tive of the swine family. That such beautiful and graceful creatures 

 as gazelles, blesboks, and bonte-quaggas should have as their associate 

 such an utterly ugly animal as the wart-hog, seems to demonstrate 

 that beauty, as we understand it, does not form the sole standard in 

 the scheme of creation. 



Wart-hogs are characterised by their huge flattened heads, of 

 which the lower extremity is much expanded, while the sides are 

 furnished with three pairs of warty protuberances between the eyes 

 and the tusks, the uppermost pair being considerably the largest of the 

 three. The upper front teeth, or incisors, are reduced to one pair ; but 

 three pairs of lower ones are present, although the outer pair may be 

 shed early. The upper tusks, which are coated with enamel only at 

 their tips, are much longer than the lower pair ; and the last cheek- 

 tooth in each jaw, which in old age is often the only one remaining 

 in addition to the tusks, is characterised by its peculiarly complex 

 structure, consisting of a number of closely packed, slender, cylindrical 

 columns united by cement. In the latter respect the wart-hog presents 

 much the same relation to an ordinary pig as does an Indian elephant 

 to its extinct relatives the mastodons. Although larger in boars than 

 in sows, the tusks are well developed in both sexes ; and in the 

 circumstance that the upper ones are longer than the lower, these 

 tusks are just the opposite to those of ordinary swine. The black 

 hide is sparsely coated with bristly hair, which may be almost com- 

 pletely shed in old animals ; but there is a mane of coarse stiff bristles 



