452 THE COMMON HOG. 



stances that are moved about by the nose. The 

 sense of smelling in these animals is, likewise,, 

 asserted to be peculiarly quick. The extreme 

 thickness of their hide and fat render them almost 

 insensible even to blows ; but all their other senses 

 are perfectly good. 



Those persons who have attended at all to the 

 manners of Swine, have observed, that they are 

 by no means deficient in sagacity; but the short 

 Jives that we allow them, and the general confine- 

 ment they undergo, entirely prevent their im- 

 provement in this respect. We, however, have 

 frequently heard of exhibitions of "learned Pigs;" 

 and we know that Toomer, formerly the game- 

 keeper of Sir H. P. St. John Mildmay, actually 

 broke in a black Sow to find game, back, and stand, 

 nearly as well as a Pointer. 



This Sow, which was a thin, long-legged animal, 

 (one of the ugliest of the New Forest breed,) 

 when very young, took a great partiality to some 

 Pointer puppies, that Toomer, then under keeper 

 of Broomy Lodge, in the New Forest, was break- 

 ing. It played and often came to feed with them. 

 From this circumstance, it occurred to Toomer, 

 (to use his own expression,) that, having broken 

 many a Dog, as obstinate as a Pig, he would try 

 if he could not also succeed in breaking a Pig. 

 The little animal would often go out with the 

 puppies to some distance from home; and he 

 enticed it farther by a sort of pudding made of 



barley 



