74 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



of nerves. They are short-sighted and hard 

 of hearing, and when they suddenly get wind 

 of a man they are apt to charge blindly, for 

 fear of being surrounded. In parts of India, 

 the high grass is both board and lodging to 

 the rhinoceros, which lives in it and feeds on 

 it, and must, therefore, be shot from elephant- 

 back, as it is not possible for anyone on foot 

 to get a shot. The rhinoceros of Sumatra is 

 a smaller animal, with hairy ears. It is not 

 particularly courageous, but is very destructive 

 in the plantations. 



THE WILD BOAR 



This animal is the joy of Indian sportsmen, 

 particularly of soldiers stationed in that land, 

 who find pigsticking one of their favourite 

 amusements. Nowhere else do boars show 

 such fight. I have seen them pretty nasty 

 when maddened by spear-thrusts in the cork- 

 woods near Tangier, but an old Indian boar, 

 which stands some thirty inches at the shoul- 

 der, is the incarnation of pluck, tushes brist- 

 ling, little red eyes flashing, charging times 

 and again, even with spears broken in its 

 body. Though considered a dainty by both 

 tigers and leopards, and, doubtless aware of 

 their fondness for his flesh, the boar thinks 

 little of drinking at the same waterhole as 



