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 CHAPTER XII, 

 THE HOG. 



" How instinct varies in the grovelling swine, 

 ComparM, half-reasoning elephant, with thine." 



WE now proceed to the description of a kind of quadruped 

 which seem to occupy, in the scale of animated nature, a middle 

 place, between the herbivorous and the carnivorous race, and 

 unite in themselves most of those distinctions which are peculiar 

 to these two grand divisions of the animal kingdom. The Hog, 

 in all its varieties, although inferior in utility to the horse, the 

 cow, and the sheep ; neither rendering us any service in the 

 plough or draught ; affording us neither milk, butter, nor cheese; 

 nor furnishing any warm and woolly fleece for our clothing, is, 

 notwithstanding, highly estimable in supplying us with excellent 

 food ; and its value is not a little enhanced by the shortness of 

 the time requisite for its growth and fattening. 



The Hog does not ruminate, but resembles the ruminating 

 animals, in dividing the hoof, and preferring a vegetable diet ; 

 and it partakes of the nature of the carnivorous race, in relishing 

 animal food. In the length of the head, and in having only a 

 single stomach, it exhibits a similarity to the horse : in its cloven 

 hoof, we trace a resemblance to the cow; and it approxi- 

 mates to the claw-footed kind, by its appetite for flesh, and its 

 numerous progeny. Thus the species serves to fill up the chasm 

 between carnivorous animals and those which feed upon herbage. 

 This animal, producing from ten to twenty young at a birth, forms 

 also a remarkable exception to the two general rules of nature ; 

 that the largest animals produce the fewest young, and that, of 

 all quadrupeds, those which have claws are the most prolific. 



THE COMMON HOG 



Is so well known, that any description of it would be super- 

 fluous, and a few general observations are all that are requisite 



In no instance has Nature more conspicuously displayed her 

 economy, than in forming this race of animals, and endowing 

 them with an appetite to feed on a variety of things that would 

 otherwise be wasted. The refuse of the kitchen, the barn, the 

 garden, or the field, affords the swine a luxurious repast. It is 

 restless in stormy weather, and seems particularly terrified, or 

 affected, when the wind is extremely violent. At such times, it 

 will often run screaming about, and appear much agitated. 



