Game Animals of India, etc. 



European S. scrofa (which is probably found in Persia) 

 is not determined, although Dr. Blanford considered 

 that such might be the case. The same remark 

 applies to the wild swine of Kashmir. Under these 

 circumstances it has not been considered necessary to 

 introduce Sus scrofa as a member of the fauna treated 

 of in this volume. 



To a considerable extent the Indian wild boar is 

 nocturnal, hiding in thick covert — it may be long grass, 

 cultivated crops ot grain or sugar-cane, bushes, or, 

 more rarely, forest — during the greater part of the day, 

 and issuing forth to feed in the morning and evening. 

 The extent to which pigs are nocturnal varies, however, 

 according to the degree in which they are disturbed ; 

 and in certain districts they may be seen feeding till 

 comparatively late in the day. On moonlight nights 

 they remain out for hours ; and in cultivated districts 

 the damage they do to growing crops by turning 

 up the soil with their snouts is extensive. The 

 " sounders," as the herds in which they associate are 

 commonly termed, are composed exclusively of sows, 

 immature boars, and young ; the old boars spending 

 a solitary existence. The number of individuals in a 

 sounder does not ordinarily exceed ten or a dozen, 

 although occasionally as many as a score, or more, may 

 be seen in company. The solitary old boars are 

 extremely awkward animals to encounter ; and the 

 natives of certain districts of the Himalaya have a 

 saying that it is as easy to face a tiger as one of these 

 veteran swine. Although mainly vegetable -feeders, 

 wild swine by no means restrict themselves to a diet of 

 this description, being, in fact, more or less omnivorous. 

 Not only will they make a hearty meal off carrion, but 

 in Assam they are stated to be in the habit of digging 

 up the fish which take refuge in the mud of the river- 

 beds during droughts. If they have a partiality for 

 one kind of vegetable food more than another, it is for 

 the roots and tubers of plants growing in moist situa- 



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