32 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



one piggy of their number left, people who are acquainted 

 with their manners and habits generally prefer letting 

 them alone. 



Their mode of "camping" at night is particularly 

 droll. Selecting a large hollow tree, overthrown by some 

 storm of wind, the whole drove will get into it, one after 

 the other, backwards, so that the last stands guard, with 

 his snout to the entrance. And it is when they have be- 

 taken themselves to their lodgings for the night, that the 

 settler, (to whose crops they are terribly destructive,) has 

 his almost sole chance of destroying them. 



When he finds one of these hollow trees, he soon as- 

 certains whether or not the peccaries have chosen it for 

 their sleeping-place. If they have, he waits with as 

 much patience as he can, for a regular dull, dark, driz- 

 zling day ; for in such weather the peccaries, disliking 

 either a wet jacket, or wet feet, or both, do not stir 

 abroad, but remain in the retirement of their hollow tree 

 trunk. On such a day, therefore, the settler, armed with 

 his rifle, takes his stand at day-dawn, directly opposite 

 to what we may call the peccary's front door ; concealing 

 himself cautiously among the neighboring bushes. Pre- 

 sently there is light enough to see the nose and sharp 

 eyes of the sentinel peccary. Covering him with his 

 rifle, the trigger is pulled ; and with the ball in his brain, 

 over head and heels tumbles poor piggy-wiggy, and there 

 is an end of him. Wakened by the explosion, another 

 pops himself into the opening to see what is the matter ; 

 but a second bullet finishes him in like manner. A third, 

 fourth, even more, it is said, may be shot in this way, if 

 the man is only careful enough not to stir the bushes 



