126 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



On the hinder part of the back is a gland secreting a very evil- 

 smelling fluid ; gentle titillation of the gland appears to please the 

 Peccary, and the pair at the Zoological Gardens may be occasionally 

 seen standing head to tail and rubbing each other's back with their 

 cheeks, no doubt to procure this gratifying sensation. 



The female Peccary, which closely resembles the male, has only 

 two teats, not a large number like the common sow, and in accord- 

 ance with this she only brings forth one or at most two little Peccaries 

 at a birth. These young Peccaries are not striped like the young of 

 most typical Pigs, nor do they possess the cream-coloured neck-stripes 

 or "collar" of the adults. In fact, their colour is altogether different, 

 being a plain light-brown with a black stripe down the centre of the 

 back. 



The Peccary is a sociable, active, and very courageous animal. 

 Like the Swine tribe generally, it lives in cover, and will eat practically 

 anything ; but it is not so fond of water as most of them, being able 

 to do without a drink when it can get access to such succulent food 

 as the prickly pear, and seldom resorting to it to bathe. Being a 

 small-footed animal, too, it cannot swim so fast as Pigs generally 

 do. It is also not very fast on foot for more than a short distance, 

 and after a run of a few hundred yards it will turn and face Dog, 

 Horse, or man, bristling its long hair and champing its teeth with 

 the greatest fury, and will then fight to the death. Occasionally it 

 will attack man unprovoked, but naturally such instances are the less 

 likely to occur where the animals have been a good deal hunted and 

 have learnt caution, as in the United States, where the animals have 

 never been found but quite in the south-west corner, and are now 

 nearly extinct. The danger in a conflict with Peccaries lies especially 

 in the fact that there are generally a number to contend with, as the 

 animal usually goes in herds, sometimes numbering as many as thirty 

 animals, and from such a mob there is little chance of escape, unless 

 a tree be at hand which can be climbed. 



Even the Jaguar, one of the chief natural enemies of these plucky 

 little Pigs, has to be very careful how he picks off a straggler, for if 



