Liberia *•- 



and the wart hogs (^Phacochxrus), and perhaps to certain 

 extinct types of Southern Europe. The examples he described 

 reached him from the forests round Mount Kenia; but prior 

 to the arrival of these specimens from the Kenia district in 

 Eastern Africa, examples of this forest pig had already been 

 discovered in the north-eastern part of the Congo Forest.' 

 Legends of the existence of this giant pig had earlier still been 

 transmitted by the late Sir Henry Stanley and myself from 

 the same regions. G. L. Bates, the well-known collector, who 

 has made such a remarkable study of the fauna of the Cameroons 

 region, first sent back similar stories of a giant black pig found 

 in that part of the African forest region, and then actually 

 discovered and transmitted its skull ; " so that it is quite 

 conceivable that a species of Hylochcerus may still be found 

 lingering in the interior forests of Liberia, having been killed 

 out by man in the intervening country. 



The Red river hog is found abundantly throughout 

 Liberia, and its geographical range probably stretches from the 

 vicinity of the Gambia on the west to the borders of the 

 Uganda Protectorate on the east, and from the west coast 

 of Tanganyika to Angola and the Lower Congo. It is the 

 only handsome member of the pig family, the head not being 

 quite so disproportionately large, and the body being well covered 

 with thick, short, glossy hair (except on the back, where the 

 hair lengthens into a mane), while the ends of the ears are 

 tufted with long white plumes. 



The colour of this animal is a bright orange-red, with 

 black and white marks on the face, white tufts at the end of 

 the ears, and a long white mane along the back. The young 



' To be seen in the Congo Museum at Tervueren, Brussels. 

 ' The Cameroons type of Forest pig has been named by Mr. Oldfield Thomas 

 Hylochcerus rimator. Tliis is a more specialised form than the East African type. 



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