336 



BRANCH C'HORDATA 



is said that at the large packing-houses everything about the hog is used, 

 except the squeals. The hair is sold for mixing mortar or for making brushes. 

 The skin is used for making foot-balls. The bones and teeth are carbonized 

 and sold to sugar refiners or ground into a fertilizer. The sinews and hoofs 

 are used in making glue, the intestines for sausage-casings, and the blood for 

 making buttons, or, together with the refuse, for making fertilizer. 



American Hoys. — The collared peccary is our best representative of the 

 wild hog. It is grayish black, with a white collar or streak about the withers. 

 It ranges from the Rio Grande in Texas southward to Patagonia. It 

 prefers moist, bushy, upland jungles, but it has been found in regions sur- 

 prisingly dry, hot, and bare of vegetation. Peccaries go in small droves, 



Fig. 272. — Wild boar contrasted with a modern domesticated pig. (Ro- 

 manes.) 



and feed at night on roots, mushrooms, farm products, and small animals. 

 "When pursued, they run in open ground with great fle(>tn('.ss, and m cover 

 will squat and dodge like a jack-rabbit." When cornered they are cour- 

 ageous and pugnacious, fighting viciously, so that the boldest hunter "does 

 not hesitate to climb the best tree that happens to be available." Only 

 their courage and the use of their tusks have protected them from annihila- 

 tion in forests infested with jaguars, pumas, wolves, and ocelots. If the 

 musk gland is cut out as soon as the animal is killed the flesh is palatable. 



The ruminants, or cud-chewers, include the giraffe, deer, ox, 

 sheep, and antelope. Teeth and stomach are both adapted to an 



