25S 



THE BABYROUSSA. 



Id its wild and domesticated state the Hog is a most prolific animal, 

 producing from eight to twelve pigs twice in each year, when it is in 

 full vigor and in good health. Gilbert White records a sow which 

 when she died was the parent of no less than three hundred pigs. 



There is a prevalent idea that whenever the Hog takes to the water 

 he cuts his own throat with the sharp hoofs of his fore-feet. This, how- 

 ever, is by no means the case, for the animal is an admirable swimmer, 

 and will often take to the water intuitively. In one of the Moray Isl- 

 ands three domestic pigs belonging to the same litter swam a distance 

 of five miles, and it is said that if they had belonged to a wild fam- 

 ily they would have swum to a much greater distance. 



-3/^i/^^:^-^ 



The Essex Pig. 



The flesh and fat of the Hog are especially valuable on account of 

 their aptitude for taking salt without being rendered hard and indigest- 

 ible by the process ; and the various breeds of domesticated Swine are 

 noted for their adaptation to form pork or bacon in the shortest time 

 and of the best quality. A full account of the various English vari- 

 eties, together with the mode of breeding them and developing their 

 peculiar characteristics, may be found in many books which are de- 

 voted especially to the subject. 



One of the most formidable-looking of Swine is the Babyeoussa of 

 Malacca. This strange creature is notable for the curious manner in 

 which the tusks are arranged, four of these weapons being seen to pro- 

 ject above the snout. The tusks of the lower jaw project upward on 

 each side of the upper, as is the case with the ordinary boar of Europe, 

 but those of the upper jaw are directed in a very strange manner. Their 

 sockets, -instead of pointing downward, are curved upward, so that the 

 tooth, in filling the curvatures of the socket, passes through a hole in 



