THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHACOCH<ERE. 87 



brown colour, those on the top of the head diverging 

 like the rays of a circle. On the other parts the hair is 

 shorter and of a dull brown, slightly inclined to white 

 on the belly and flanks. The tail, except along the top, 

 where it is furnished with a number of blackish brown 

 bristles, is nearly naked. Length of head and body, about 

 five feet ; of the tail, about eleven inches. (Fig. 44.) 



Spamnan, who was well acquainted with this species 

 during his residence in South Africa, gives us a good 

 account of its habits and manners, whence it woirid ap- 

 ])ear that the young and the females associate in herds, 

 for the sake of mutual defence, as is the case with the 

 wild swine of Europe. In the tenth chapter this accu- 

 rate writer says, " This da}'^ I saw for the first time a 

 herd of boschvarkens, or, as they are likewise called, 

 wilde varkens (wood swine or wild swine), in their wild 

 uncultivated state ; for I had hitherto seen only one of 

 this species of animals in the menagerie at the Cape. 

 He was confined there with a strong iron chain, and was 

 very wild and vicious, M. Pallas informs us in his 

 'Spicel. Zool.,' Fasc. xi. add. p. 84, that one of them 

 killed the keeper of the menagerie at Amsterdam. One 

 may easily conceive that this creature is very dangerous, 



if one only takes notice of its large tusks In a 



head of this animal, salted and dried, which I gave to 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden, the upper 

 tusks stand nine inches out of the jaws, and measure full 

 five inches in circumference at the base. The two other 

 tusks which come from the lower jaw project but three 

 inches from the mouth, being flat on the inside, and corre- 

 sponding with another plain surface similar to it in the 

 upper tusks. These the beasts make use of not so much 

 for biting as for goring and butting with. A little pig 

 of this species which I afterwards caught at Visch rivier, 

 and had tied up, thinking to bring it alive along with 

 me, had already got this trick, so that I was soon obliged 

 to let it be killed. It was terribly vicious, and quick in 

 all its motions ; and though at that time not absolutely 

 dangerous, yet my Boshies men were very much afraid 

 of it. * We had rather,* said they, ' attack a lion on the 



