BABYROUSSA. 



27; 



stages of their growth. The mandrill is more a forest 

 animal than the common baboon ; and he is not 

 very pleasant to visit, as he is bold and fierce when 

 attacked, and very apt to regard a visit of curiosity 

 in the light of an invasion, and treat it accordingly. 



6. The DRILL (C. leucnphasa). This species is 

 described as being rather smaller in stature than the 

 mandrill, and not so ferocious. Its general colour is 

 yellowish-grey, with the face black, and the tail very 

 short and slender. It seems to be subject to very 

 considerable varieties of colour at different ages. In 

 the adult male, the hair over the upper part becomes 

 much deeper in the colour, and the chin bright red. 



Head of the Drill. 



Such is a list of what appears to be the principal 

 and best "authenticated species of this very singular 

 race. The notices which we have given of them are 

 very short and very imperfect, but it cannot be- other- 

 wise, inasmuch as- no inconsiderable portion of their 

 history rests upon no more satisfactory foundation 

 than that of museum specimens. It would no doubt 

 have been very easy to extend the description by 

 the introduction of many stories of the ferocity and 

 offensive manners of the animals, especially of the 

 mandrill ; but these stories are all probably very much 

 exaggerated ; and though they were true, the repeat- 

 ing of them would neither promote good taste nor 

 useful information. The baboon has long been what 

 is, in common speech, called "a lion," something to 

 round a tale of the "monsters of nature," which are 

 to be met with in the wilds of foreign parts, where the 

 ardour of the climate may be supposed to make the 

 earth as fertile as the imagination of the describers. 

 But in these cases, imagination always outrages 

 nature, and gets contrary to it, by forming its com- 

 pounds out of those materials with which it is ac- 

 quainted in different climates, so that they do not suit 

 the places in which they are put. When we remem- 

 ber the acephaK, the monoculi, and the other strange 

 races with which the ancients peopled the unknown 

 parts of the world, we may expect to find a little of 

 the same attaching to all the obscure points of natural 

 history. Good taste, and the promotion of useful 

 knowledge, both require the repression of these mat- 

 ters, in order that the ground may be clear for the 

 reception of better information, when that shall be 

 obtained. The baboons, especially the true baboons, 

 or the six that are last enumerated in the above list, 

 stand in need both of more extended and accurate 

 information, and of clearing the ground for the recep- 

 tion of it. 



BABYROUSSA (Sus Safyroussa). A species 



NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



of pachydermatous animal, belonging to the genus 

 Sus, the pig ; and sometimes, but without much pro- 

 priety, called the " pig-deer," or " deer-pig ;" for in the 

 length and clean make of its limbs, and also in the 

 covering of its body, it differs from most of the genus ; 

 and the latter difference is not confined to the mere 

 clothing, but extends also to the skin, which is much 

 thinner, and more membranous than that of the hog. 

 It is an inhabitant of the Oriental, or Indian Archipe- 

 lago ; and the mildness of the climate there, and the 

 regular succession of food, which an animal that feeds 

 indiscriminately upon young shoots and leaves, fallen 

 fruits, and roots, can procure, may readily account 

 for the difference in covering between it and those 

 species of the genus which inhabit where the climate 

 is less genial, and the seasons less uniform. Its ge- 

 neral covering is soft and woolly, more so than the 

 second, or under covering of the common pig. Its 

 colour is paler than that of the wild boar, but it has a 

 trace of the same tint : it is reddish or brownish ash, 

 while that of the other is dark blackish-brown, with 

 a slight gloss or tint of red. It has no bristles, pro- 

 perly so called, but still there is an indication even of 

 this character of the genus. Among the woolly 

 hair, which is rather inclined to curl or mat slightly, 

 there are other hairs, considerably larger than the 

 rest, quite straight, and of a silky or glistening tex- 

 ture. No lard forms under the skin, as in the com- 

 mon pig, at any season, how abundantly soever the 

 animal may be fed ; and from the regular supply of 

 food, which its native localities furnish at all seasons, 

 the accumulation of fat would not only be useless, but 

 it would be an incurabrance. Common pigs, though 

 one use of their thick and peculiarly formed skin ap- 

 pears to be to prevent changes of temperature from 

 affecting the consistency of the fat or lard, accumulate 

 very little fat in tropical climates, and comparatively 

 little in the warmer countries of Europe. All animals 

 have a greater aptitude for accumulating fat in cold 

 countries than in warm ones ; and naturally the fat so 

 accumulated is always, to a certain extent, a store 

 against that season when food is scarce. The native 

 country of the babyroussa is very near the equator ; 

 and we believe that there are few instances of equa- 

 torial animals accumulating annual fat : those that 

 feed on vegetables rather migrate if there be seasons 

 when food fails ; and the carnivora, whose subsistence 

 they form, of course migrate along with them. The 

 genus Sus are not much of migrants in any country, 

 their chief marches being from the forest to the 

 fields, and from the fields back again to the forest ; 

 and, as already hinted, the species under considera- 

 tion has little occasion to migrate. 



Babyroussa. 



From the above figure it will be seen that the gene- 

 ral character of the animal is in some respects that of 

 BB 



