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HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



have been quite easy, because the animal is truly omnivo- 

 rous. When the Israelites left Egypt and when the Greeks 

 laid siege to ancient Troy, the hog was a common domestic 

 animal in southwestern Asia and in central and southern 

 Europe. 



Habits. The pig is not held up to children as a model 

 of cleanliness. It likes to lie down in muddy pools ; it 

 eats many things which we do not consider clean, but so 

 do chickens, ducks, and geese, and yet we eat them all. Poor 

 piggy has no long bushy tail with which to drive away the 



FIG. 25. EUROPEAN WILD BOAR. 



flies, nor is he so built that he can reach every part of his 

 body with his teeth. Therefore, when the thermometer 

 registers eighty in the shade and flies are thick, he rolls 

 and dozes in the mud or pool, and thus he solves the heat 

 and insect problem at once. Too often man compels the 

 pigs to be very much dirtier than they like to be. If pigs 

 have a clean place to sleep in, most of them will keep their 

 bodies cleaner than horses keep theirs. 



Intelligence and sympathy. Every farmer knows how 

 quick pigs learn to recognize the person who brings them 

 food, and in how many ways they learn to find food for 



