20 WILD LIFI-. IX \K\V ZKALAND. 



however, won.- niistaki-n by them for horses, they liaving some vague 



recollection of thosi which they ha<l seen on board Captain Cook's 



is. They forth vith rode two of them to death, and the third 



killed for having entered a burying-groimd. A very old man 



who had known Captain King related this singular story to me." 

 Dieffenbach's credulity seems to have been played on as regards 



the horses, whatever approximation to irtith there is in the other 

 part of the story; it is most improbable that any horses were on 

 board any of Cook's ships. 



The pi ITS introduced into the country in the early days were 

 ntly of more than one kind. Mr. H. Scott, formerly M.P. for 

 Central Otago, tells me that the wild pigs formerly so abundant in 

 this district were " originally a variety of the Tamworth breed 

 lom_r snouted, razor-backed, built for speed rather than for fatten - 

 in<_ r . <|tiick and airile in nioveinent. The predominating colour was 

 ml or sandy red, with some black, and a few black-and-white, but 

 th-st mav have come from an occasional tame boar which strayed 

 and became wild. At the time when they were most numerous 

 in Otago thev were decidedly gregarious, usually three or four 

 L'eiierat ions riiniiing together in mobs numbering from half a 

 do/en up tn forty or even fifty. When at larked by dogs, if cover. 

 such as Max. scrub, or high irrass. was handy, they made for it. 

 and would form a circle, with the older pigs on the outer ring 

 and the ynuiiL r er ones in the centre, for greater protection. The 

 luiiirs. pan ieularlv the old ones, lived alone, and roamed far 

 and wide. The habits of the wild pig were clean." Tin- late 

 Mr. Robert llillies wrote that " in 181>. the year of the settlement of 

 0, \\ild piir- were very common on the site of Dunedi n. " In 



! he and a party killed seventy pigs at the hack of Flagstaff 



Hill in two " The l.n. r . pointed snout, long legs, and 



!-script colours of the true wild pi^s showed them to be 



B a diltVrent breed from the sutlers' imported pig^ Their 



I ojiiite different from pork. l>einL r more like venison than 



anytli 



The wild pi-_r- of the North Island were a different race from 



the "Capt.-mi Cookert, 1 ' and were proliahlv the progeny of animals 



ini|.orted at a later date. |)i.-fii-iilarh says (in 18. 1 ?.")), "The Xe\\ 



uliar breed, with short heads nnd legs. an<l 



.pact hodi 



