THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 183 



eiTectual weapons. The wart-hog inhabits the plains and forests, 

 but it is only on the plains, of course, that the sport of pigsticking can 

 be indulged in. 



The Wild Hog.— A near cousin of the wart-hog is the wild hog. 

 This animal is one or two inches shorter at the shoulder than the wart- 

 Iiog, with an extreme length of five or six feet. There are four toes 

 on each of the feet, the middle two only touching the ground. The 

 nose is elongated and consists of cartilage principally. The canine 

 teeth on both jaws are very long and strong. The upper ones project 

 horizontally and the lower teeth upward, forming four tusks. The 

 color is dirty brown and the body is covered with long stifif bristles. 

 The tail is over a foot long, thin and slightly tufted. 



In order to enable the hog family to "root" or turn up the ground, 

 they are provided with a short and stubby nose, or snout, which is 

 capable of considerable movement. The skin is more or less abun- 

 dantly supplied with hair or bristle, and the tail is short, and in some 

 cases merely represented by a tubercle, or knob. 



The sense of smell in the hog is very acute, and when its broad 

 snout plows up the herbage, not a root, an insect, or a worm, escapes 

 the sense of smell. Although credited with stupidity, the hog in its 

 native state is to be styled anything but a dull and drowsy animal, 

 neither is it the filthy animal that domestication has reduced it to. 

 Properly cared for, the pig is as cleanly in its habits and as capable of 

 strong attachments as any other creature. 



In its habits the wild hog is by choice herbiverous, feeding on 

 plants, fruits, and roots; but it will also eat snakes, lizards and various 

 insects, and when pressed by hunger nothing appears to come amiss to 

 its greedy appetite; it is stated that even dead horses are sometimes 

 eaten from necessity. The hog is nocturnal in its habits, rarely leaving 

 the shadow of the woods in the day-time and coming forth as twilight 

 approaches in search of food, delighting in roots often deeply embedded 

 in the soil, and which its keen sense of smell enables it easilv to detect. 

 Much mischief is often done by this animal, which plows up the 

 ground in continuous furrows for long distances, and is not content, 

 like the domesticated variety, with plowing up a spot here and there. 



There is no one of the many savage inhabitants of the forest 



