THE BABIROUSSA. 63 



mire and muddy pools, and readily take to the water, 

 swimming with great vigour. 



In captivity the white-lipped peccary has appeared to 

 us to be more reserved and savage than the collared spe- 

 cies, and more ready to testify by the clashing of its teeth 

 its feelings of displeasure. 



The Babiroussa 

 (^Sus Babirussa, Linn. ; Bahirussa a/furus, F. Cuv.). 



The term Babiroussa means literally hog-deer, and 

 there is some reason to think that the ancients were not 

 altogether unacquainted with the animal. Pliny notices 

 a wild boar with horns on the forehead, found in India ; 

 and Cosmes, a writer in the sixth century, uses the term 

 hog-deer (xotpeAa^os) as the designation of an Indian 

 animal : however this may be, it is only recently that 

 naturalists have become well acquainted with it and its 

 habits, though its skulls have been brought over to Europe 

 in abundance by vessels trading among the Moluccas. 



The babiroussa differs somewhat in dentition from the 

 hog, the incisors being four above, instead of six, and 

 the molars five on each side in either jaw. The upper 

 canines or tusks of the male emerge directly upward 

 from their apparently distorted sockets, and sweep with 

 a bold arch backwards, attaining to a very great length. 

 The skin is thick, coarse, granular, of a blackish tint, and 

 sparingly beset with very short bristly hairs. The tusks 

 of the lower jaw are long, strong, and sharp, emerging 

 like those of the boar. The tusks of the upper jaw do 

 not pass out between the lips, but cut their way through 

 the skin, nearly half way between the end of the snout 

 and the eyes. The tusks of the lower jaw are formidable 

 weapons. The male when adult equals the largest hog ; 

 the female is of much inferior size, and destitute of the 

 curled upper tusks, or has them only rudimentary. 



The babiroussa is found in the marshy forests in the 

 interior of Bourou, and other of the Molucca islands, as 

 Amboyna, and also Java, where it associates in troops. 

 Its habits resemble those of the wild hog, and it is rest- 



