THE TRUE PIGS 1015 



In Germany, the European wild boar is hunted with boarhounds; 

 and when in the highlands of Ceylon, Sir Samuel Baker was in the habit 

 of hunting the Indian pig with a pack of dogs, and dispatching his quarry single 

 handed with a hunting knife. In all parts of India where riding is possible the wild 

 boar is, however, always speared; and the sport of "pig-sticking," as it is com- 

 monly called, is undoubtedly by far the finest and most exciting of all the many kinds 

 of Indian shikar. One of the best grounds for pig-sticking is the old valley of the 

 Ganges in the neighborhood of Mirut, locally known as the Khadir. Here "the 

 ground," writes General Kinloch, "consists of level plains covered with grass and 

 intersected with deep nullas or ravines, some dry, others full of water; with deep 

 but invisible ditches; holes varying in size, from pits large enough to swallow up 

 horse and rider to others just big enough to admit a horse's leg; hidden stumps, and 

 tangled bushes; and over this one has to gallop at racing pace." Falls are of course 

 frequent, although severe accidents are less common than might have been expected. 



A smaller species of pig inhabits the forests of the Andaman islands 

 " in the Bay of Bengal, and stands only some twenty inches in height at 

 the shoulder. In addition to its small stature, the Andaman pig (S. andaman- 

 ensis] is further distinguished by its relatively-short tail, the shagginess of the coat, 

 the absence of the crest of long hair on the neck, and, above all, by the relative 

 shortness of the hindmost lobe of the last molar tooth in the lower jaw. 



The third Indian representative of the genus is the pygmy hog (S. 

 salvanius] of the forests at the foot of the Himalayas in Bhutan, Sik- 

 kim, and Nipal. These tiny little pigs are scarcely larger than hares, standing only 

 about eleven inches at the shoulder. They are brown or blackish brown in color, 

 with small, naked ears, very short tails, and only three pairs of teats in the female 

 instead of the usual six. From the little that is known of the habits of these pigs 

 in the wild state, it appears that they generally live in herds of from five to twenty 

 head in grass jungle, and that the old boars remain with the sows. Probably the 

 number of young produced at a birth is less than in other pigs. 



We have now to consider briefly the wild pigs of the islands of the 

 lgs Malayan region and Japan; and it is among these that the greatest 

 uncertainty prevails among zoologists, as to the real number of species discoverable. 

 These pigs may, however, be divided into three groups, of which the first is nearly 

 related to the Indian pig. The best-known representative of the first group is the 

 collared pig (S. vittatus) of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, characterized by the white 

 streak running along the sides of the face to the neck, and by the absence of any 

 crest of hair on the back of the neck, and of warts on the face; the last lower 

 molar tooth being large and complex. The white- whiskered Japan pig (S. leucomys- 

 tax), as well as the Papuan pig (S. papuensis}, and the Formosan pig (S. taevanus} 

 are nearly allied species. The second group is represented by a well-marked species 

 known as the warty pig (S. verrucosus), from Java and Borneo, readily distin- 

 guished by the presence of three small warts on each side of the face, the largest 

 of these carrying a number of bristles and being situated just below the eye. The 

 skull in this pig is of ordinary length; while the last lower molar tooth is of medium 

 size and complexity. The Ceram pig (S. ceratncnsis] and the Celebes pig (S. cele- 



