NATURAL HISTORY. 157 



" The bristled boar . . . 



New grinds his arming usks and digs the ground, 

 He rubs his sides agair st a tree prepares 

 And hardens both his sioulders for the wars." CARET. 



The head and neck, as far as the shoulders, being fortified with 

 a shield of thickened skin, the tapir can the more readily plunge 

 through the thicket, than if its fore quarters were covered only 

 with an ordinary skin. 



468. Why have hogs thick muscular necks? 



Because their habit of rooting up the ground in ^uest of the 

 \egetable stores that lie beneath its surface, renders considerable 

 force necessary. The form of the snout, the motions of which its 

 cartilaginous tip is capable, and the efficacy of the hind hoofs, and 

 powerful hocks, in 1 hrowing the neck and shoulders well up to their 

 work, are equally tributary to this natural habit. 



Sir Charles Bell, adverting to the peculiar anatomy of the 

 hog, says : 



" The formation of the skull and of the spine, and the mass of muscle in the neck, 

 all show the intention that he shall drive onward with his whole weight and 

 strength, so that he may rend with his tusks. Accordingly, we see that the back 

 part of the skull rises in remarkable spines or ridges for the attachment of muscles, 

 and that, corresponding with these, spinous processes of the vertebrae of the neck 

 and back are of extraordinary length and strength. These processes distinctly 

 Indicate the power of the muscles which pass from the neck to the head. We now 

 understand the reason of the shortness and inflexibility of the neck, because the 

 power of the shoulders is directed to the head, and, we may say, to these large 

 tusks. An elongated and flexible neck would have rendered these provisions 

 useless. The characteristic form of the wild boar, then, consists in the height o/ 

 the back, the shortness and thickness of the neck, the wedge shape of the head, 

 the projection of the tusks, and the shortness of the four limbs, which must always 

 be in proportion to the neck." 



469. Why is the Indian hog furnished with long crooked tusks ? 

 It, has been asserted by 



some authors that the 

 animal is in the habit of 

 sleeping standing, and that 

 in doing so, it steadies its 

 body by hooking the 

 tusKs on to the branch of 

 a tree. 



Independently of this 



