INTELLIGENCE OF THE HOG. 747 
than the cow, the dog, or the sheep, for each of these animals will eat to repletion if 
furnished with a large amount of food, and will become inordinately fat in consequence of 
such high feeding. In its wild state it is never found overloaded with fat, and, as has 
already been seen, is so active an animal that it can surpass a horse in speed, and is 
so little burdened with flesh that it can endure throughout a lengthened chase. Neither 
is it naturally a dirty creature, for in its native Seoul it is as clean as any other 
wild animal. But when it is confined in a narrow stye, without any possibility of 
leaving its curtailed premises, it has no choice, but is perforce obliged to live in a constant 
state of filth. 
The Hog is also thought, and very wrongly, to be an especially stupid animal. — It 
appears stupid for the same reason that it appears to be gluttonous and dirty, merely 
because no attention has been paid towards developing its “intellectual qualities, which 
have been left to exercise themselves in the narrow confines of the stye and on the daily 
supply of food. 
When, however, its owner chooses to look upon the Hog as a living being, and not 
merely as a piece of animated pork or bacon, he finds that it is by no means the stupid 
animal that it has been supposed to be. “Learned” pigs are familiar to us all, and though 
the animal does not display any very great amount of literature, it exhibits a capacity ‘of 
observation and obedience which would hardly have been expected from so maligned an 
animal. 
The senses of the Hog are wonderfully acute, and are capable of being turned to good 
purport. So delicate is its sense of smell, that it has been trained to act as a pointer, and 
in this capacity acted its part so thoroughly, that it would often find birds which the 
dogs had missed. “Slut,” as this animal was called, was very fond of the sport, and 
would frequently walk a distance of seven miles in hopes of finding some one who 
was going out with a gun. She would point at every kind of game with the curious 
exception of the hare, which she never seemed to notice. Although she would willingly 
back the dogs, they were very jealous of her presence, and refused to do their duty when 
she happened to be the discoverer of any game, so that she was seldom taken out together 
with dogs, but was employed as a solitary pointer. So sensitive was her nose, that she 
would frequently point a bird at a distance of forty yards, and if it rose and flew away, 
she would walk to the place from which it had taken wing, and put her nose on the very 
spot where it had been sitting. If, however, the bird only ran on, she would slowly follow 
it up by the scent, and when it came to a stop, she would again halt and point towards it. 
She was employed in the capacity of pointer for several - years, but was at last killed 
because she had become a dangerous neighbour to the sheep. 
The Hog has also been trained to draw a carriage, a team of four Hogs having been 
driven bya ‘farmer into the market- place of St. Alban’s. After driving once or twice round 
the market-place, he unharnessed his team, fed them, and in two hours put them again to 
his chaise, and drove them back to his house, a distance of two or three miles, Absurd 
as the idea may seem, the Hog has been trained for the saddle as well as for harness. 
Another farmer, of Norfolk, laid a heavy wager that he would in one hour ride his boar 
pig from his own house to Wisbeach, a distance of four miles and a quarter. He won his 
wager easily, accomplishing tlie distance in less than the given time. The Hog seems to 
be a good leaper, for a livery-stable keeper, who petted a favourite pig, engaged that he 
could make his pig leap over a door four feet and a half in height. In order to 
induce the animal to make the effort, he placed the door across the entrance to the stye, 
and laid a bounteous supply of favourite food within the inclosure. A wild boar has 
been known to clear a paling nearly nine feet in height, and it is remarkably active 
in leaping across ravines. 
There is a prevalent idea, that whenever the Hog takes to the water he cuts his own 
throat with the sharp hoofs of his fore-feet. This, however, is by no means the case, for 
the animal is an admirable swimmer, and will often take to the water intuitively. In 
one of the Moray Islands, three domestic pigs belonging to the same litter swam a distance 
of five miles; and it is said that if they had belonged ‘to a wild family, they would have 
swum to a much greater distance. 
