278 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



THE WILD BOAR 



[S//S scrofii) 

 (Plate V. Fig. 4) 



"• Pig-sticking " is x sport almost, it not entirely, unknown in Europe, 

 and shooting wild boar is but little practised by English sportsmen, in 

 part, no doubt, owing to the poor trophies yielded by this bold and 

 ferocious animal. Nevertheless, boar-shooting is a favourite sport in many 

 parts of Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia Minor ; Albania, the 

 Caucasus, Spain, and parts of Russia and Asia Minor being favourite 

 hunting-grounds. 



To describe such a comparatively familiar and unmistakable animal 

 as the wild boar of Europe v\'ould be mere waste of time, especially as it 

 is now represented in the British Museum by a magnihcent entire stuffed 

 specimen as well as by the mounted head of a still larger individual. The 

 long coat of stiff" bristly hair covering the entire head and body is coloured 

 a mixture ot black and brown more or less tinged with grey ; and these 

 bristles are capable ot erection along the middle of the neck and back, 

 whereby the height ot the animal when enraged is perceptibly increased. 



The largest boars are said to be found in the neighbourhood ot the 

 Caucasus, especially, according to an account published by Mr. C. Phillips- 

 Wolley in the " Badminton Library," in the chestnut forests of Circassia 

 and among the dense reed-brakes bordering the Kuban. Here it is stated 

 by the writer just cited, on the authority of Professor Radde of Titlis, that 

 boars may sometimes attain the enormous weight of 600 lbs. Actual 

 weighing is, however, desirable before such weights can be definitely 

 accepted, because in cases where boars have been put in the scales their 

 weights have proved much below this. For instance, a boar killed by 



