180 IN THE SWAMPS 



side, repeating the performance several times, 

 until he finds he can not shake you, when, turning 

 suddenly with ears cocked and eyes glittering, he 

 will charge furiously. If not squarely met with a 

 well aimed and firmly held spear, he will upset 

 both horse and rider. Hurling himself again and 

 again against the surrounding spears, he will keep 

 up his charge until killed, when he dies without a 

 groan. There is no animal like him; and truly is 

 he entitled to the honors of the chase in Indian 

 and in European countries where he abounds. 

 The true home of the wild boar (Sus cristatus and 

 S. scrofa) is India and Europe— France, Ger- 

 many, Russia, Spain, Austria. Smaller and less 

 formidable species of him are found in Hawaii, in 

 the South Sea and in the East Indian Islands ; and 

 in South America, Mexico and Texas, where he 

 is much smaller and known as the peccary. The 

 average shoulder height of a good specimen of In- 

 dian boar is twenty-nine to thirty-two inches, the 

 tusk length four to six inches, and the weight two 

 hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds; 

 although in the Tent Club I heard of boars killed 

 that had tipped the scales at six hundred— but that 

 story came late in the evening. The other East 

 Indian varieties, the babirusa excepted, will not 

 average within one hundred pounds of the Indian, 

 and the peccaries are even smaller, probably fifty 



