Game Animals of India, etc. 



this pastime ; and if pig-sticking takes a secondary 

 place among Indian sports, it is only by tiger-shooting 

 that it is excelled. Nor are tangible trophies wanting 

 to reward the sportsman, for although boars' tusks 

 are not to be compared with horns or antlers, yet, in 

 their way, they are handsome objects, and capable of 

 being worked up as accessories of several useful or 

 ornamental articles. 



Since every one is familiar with a pig, and a wild 

 boar is nothing more than a pig that has not been 

 shorn of its natural glories by the effects of domestica- 

 tion, it will be unnecessary to discuss in what respects 

 the members of the family Suid^e differ from other 

 hoofed mammals, or how the pigs of Europe and Asia 

 are distinguishable from the bush-pigs and wart-hogs 

 of Africa. 



The characters by which the Indian wild boar is 

 differentiated from the wild boar of Europe are so 

 trivial, that it is only by naturalists that they are 

 appreciated. The near relationship of the two species 

 is shown by the shape of the lower tusks ; the 

 transverse section of these forming a triangle of which 

 the hind surface is only slightly narrower than the 

 front one, while the outer surface has but half the 

 breadth of the one first named. The importance of 

 this apparently trivial feature is referred to later. 



Adult Indian wild boars not unfrequently stand 

 from 1^1, to -T^G inches in height at the shoulder, and 

 it is even stated by Mr. F. B. Simson that a very old 

 individual killed in Bengal (where large boars are far 

 from uncommon) fell little short of 38 inches. In 

 length a boar will measure about 5 feet from the 

 muzzle to the root of the tail ; the length of the latter 

 being from 8 to 1 1 inches or more. From 200 to 300 

 pounds, or even more, may be given as the weight 

 attained by the Indian wild boar ; and that the 

 European species runs to about the same bulk is 

 attested by a specimen killed in Spain by the Due 



278 



