212 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



marked with grey, was noticeable for the great 

 frontal lump found only in these wild goats. So 

 persistently are these fine goats hunted by native 

 sportsmen that it is believed they will become 

 within a few years quite extinct. The Abyssinians 

 of Simien, in spite of the passport granted by the 

 Negus Menelek, placed great obstructions in Major 

 Cotton's way, and were apparently only anxious to 

 get him out of their country. 1 



WILD BOARS 



In Africa are to be found three groups of wild 

 pigs, the wart hogs, the wild boar, and the bush 

 pigs. Of Wart hogs two races, the southern and 

 the northern, are known to naturalists. The differ- 

 ences between these species are, however, so trifling 

 that the average sportsman is scarcely likely to 

 notice them ; it may, in fact, be stated that the 

 northern wart hog is no more than a mere local 

 variation of the southern form. The wart hog, 

 with its enormous and disproportioned head, fleshy 

 wens or protuberances (the " warts") on either side 

 of the face, and enormous tusks, is one of the 

 ugliest beasts in Africa. He is nothing like so 

 fierce or so fine a sporting animal as the true wild 

 boar, and he has a knack of going to ground in 

 the cavernous earths of the ant-bear, which renders 

 him a somewhat vexatious animal. From these 



1 A Sporting Trip through Abyssinia. By P. H. G. Powell-Cotton. Rowland 

 Ward. 1902. 



