WILD BOARS IN GERMANY. 53 



ing the best aim for readily disabling him. In this situation the sa- 

 gacious dog contrives to keep him until his master fires ; then if the 

 wounded boar makes off, the boar-hound (a species "of blood-hound ) 

 is let loose, who pursues him for miles, giving tongue, nor will he 

 leave him even if other boars come in the way. 



At the wild boar park of the Emperor of Austria, which is at 

 Hiittelsdorf, near Vienna, Mr. Howitt states that he saw " numbers 

 of swine of all ages and sizes, from the grisly old boar to the sow 

 and her troop of suckling young ones. Here some grim old fellow 

 as black as jet, or of a sun-burnt and savage gray, lay basking in 

 the deep grass, and at our approach uttered a deep guff, and start- 

 ing up, bolted into the wood. Others were lying their length under 

 the broad trees, others scampering about with cocked tails. The 

 sows and their young seemed most savage and impatient of our 

 presence. Some were tame enough to come at the whistle of 

 the keeper, and scores ran voraciously when he shook one of the 

 wild cornel-trees, which grew plentifully in the forest. This is a tree 

 as large as an apple-tree, bearing, in autumn, fruit of about the size 

 of cherries, and of a coral red color. The swine are very fond of 

 it, and as the trees were shook, and it pattered to the ground, they 

 came running on all sides, and stood in the thickets eager for our 

 departure, when they rushed ravenously forward and devoured it." 

 "After all," he continues, " the wild swine here can present but a 

 faint idea of what they were in their ancient wilds. They are all of 

 the true breed, and cannot for a moment be confounded with the 

 tame variety ; there is the tusked mouth, the thick fore-quarter, the 

 narrow hind-quarter, the mane, the coarse bristles, the speed of gait, 

 indicative of the wild breed, but they appeared tame and pigmy in 

 comparison with the huge savage monsters bred in the obscure 

 recesses of deep forests, and unacquainted with the sight of man. 

 " Hunters tell us that, notwithstanding the orders of Government 

 to exterminate swine in the open forests, on account of the mischief 

 they do to cultivated land, there are numbers in the forests in Han 

 over and Westphalia, huge, gaunt, and ferocious as ever. These 

 will snuff the most distant approach of danger, and with terrific 

 noises rush into the densest woods ; or surrounding a solitary and 

 unarmed individual, especially a woman or a child, will scour round 

 and round them, coming nearer and nearer at every circle, until at 

 last, bursting in upon them, they tear them limb from limb and de- 

 vour them. Tame swine, which are herded in these forests and be- 

 come mixed in breed with the wild, acquire the same blood-thirsty 

 propensities, and will, in their herds, surround and devour persons in 

 a similar manner." 



The wild breed abound in Upper Austria, on the Styrian Alps, 

 and in many parts of Hungary. In the latter country, a recent 

 author speaking of them, says : " These animals have lost some little 



