382 ANIMALS OF THE 



it has a fishy taste, like that of all those which are 

 bred in the water. Its head, however, is said to 

 be excellent ; and in this it resembles the beaver, 

 whose fore parts taste like flesh, and the hinder 

 like the fish it feeds on. 



THE BABYROUESSA, OR INDIAN HOG. 



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THE Babyrouessa is still more remote from the 

 hog kind than the capibara ; and yet most tra- 

 vellers who have described this animal do not 

 scruple to call it the Hog of Borneo, which is an 

 island in the East Indies where it is principally 

 to be found. Probably this animal's figure upon 

 the whole most resembles that of the hog kind, 

 and may have induced them to rank it among the 

 number ; however, when they come to its descrip- 

 tion, they represent it as having neither the hair, 

 the bristles, the head, the stature, nor the tail of 

 a hog. Its legs, we are told, are longer, its snout 

 shorter, its body more slender, and somewhat re- 

 sembling that of a stag ; its hair is finer, of a grey 

 colour, rather resembling wool than bristles, and 

 its tail also tufted with the same. From these 

 varieties, therefore, it can scarcely be called a 

 hog ; and yet in this class we must be content to 

 rank it, until its form and nature come to be bet- 

 ter known. What we at present principally dis- 

 tinguish it by, are the enormous tusks that grow 

 out of each jaw ; the two largest from the upper, 

 and the two smallest from the under. The jaw- 



