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CHAP. VII. 



ANIMALS OF THE HOG KIND. 



THE WILD BOAR. 



ANIMALS of the hog kind seem to unite in them- 

 selves all those distinctions hy which others are sepa- 

 rated. In the number of their teeth, (which amount 

 to forty-four,) they resemble a horse ; in the length of 

 their head they do the same, and in having but a sin- 

 gle stomach. Like the cow, their hoofs are cloven, 

 and their intestines are placed in the same form. But 

 in their appetite for flesh, their numerous progeny, 

 and not chewing the cud, we trace a similitude to the 

 claw-footed kind. Thus the species serves to fill up 

 the chasm between carnivorous animals and those 

 which feed on grass. 



The Wild Boar, which is the original of all the varie- 

 ties that we find in this race, is neither so stupid or 

 filthy an animal as that we have reduced to tameness : 

 he is smaller than the hog, and does not vary in his 

 colour in the same way that the domestic kind do, but 

 is always found of an iron-grey, rather inclining to a 

 black : his snout is more pointed ; but his ears are not 

 so long ; and the feet and tail are entirely black : his 

 tusks exceed those of the tame hog, .and frequently 

 grow near a foot in length ; these spring out from the 

 upper and under jaw; but with the latter they are ca- 

 pable of being most mischievous. The wild boar can 

 neither be properly called a solitary or a gregarious 

 animal : the three first years the family follow the sow, 

 and all live in a herd together ; they are then termed 

 beasts of company, and join their forces against th« 



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