14 THE HOG. 



flesh is similar tc ordinary pork, but harder, less sweet and juicy 

 and not so fat. 



The peccary may be tamed if taken when young, and will attach 

 itself to those who are kind to it, and to dogs and other animals ; ia 

 fond of being caressed and scratched, and will answer to its keeper's 

 voice. 



The European hog, when transplanted to the wilds of America, 

 will herd with the peccaries, but is never known to breed with them ; 

 the two races, although resembling each other in certain points, are,- 

 and remain distinct. The hog is the larger, stronger, and more use- 

 ful animal, and will thrive in almost any part of the world: the 

 peccary is smaller, weaker, and cannot be made to live in a foreign 

 climate without very great care and attention. 



The BABIBOUSSA, (sus baby-roussa,) or Hog-deer, or, as it has been 

 termed by some foreign authors, the Indian hog, is chiefly found in 

 the Moluccas, Sumatra, Java, and other islands of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. 



This animal stands higher than the common hog ; its legs are 

 long and slender ; its skin thin and scantily furnished with short 

 woolly hair of a reddish brown on the back, and lighter and more 

 inclined to fawn-color on the belly. It is chiefly remarkable for 

 the strange position of its upper tusks, which come through the skin 

 of the muzzle and curve backwards almost like horns, until they 

 nearly or quite touch the skin again; they are sometimes as much 

 as nine inches in length and five in circumference. Pliny (b. 8, chap, 

 lii.) evidently alludes to this animal when he says that wild boars 

 are found in India which have two horns on the face, similar to those 

 of a heifer, and tusks like the common wild boars. 



There are all the family characteristics of the hog in this animal; 

 the heavy awkward gait, thick neck, small eyes, head terminated by 

 a snout, and grunting voice; it feeds, too, on roots, plants, and 

 leaves, and some say shell-fish ; but some authors assert that it 

 does not grub roots out of the ground like most of the swinish varie- 

 ties. Sparrman informs us that the natives would rather attack a 

 lion than this animal, for it comes rushing on a man swift as an 

 arrow, and, throwing him down, snaps his legs in two and rips his 

 belly up in a moment. (Voyage, vol ii.) 



The flesh of the babiroussa is very fine eating, and the Malays melt 

 down the fat to use instead of butter and oil. 



Cuvier has given an account of a pair that were at the Menagerie 

 at Paris, the female of which was much younger and more active 

 than the male; he was old and fat, and only ate, drank, and slept. 

 When the male retired to rest, the female would cover him com- 

 pletely over with straw or litter, and creep in after him, so that 

 both were concealed from sight. The specimen at the Zoological 

 Gardens in the Regent's Park used to cover himself up with straw 

 in the same way. 



