58 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



habits, they are exceedingly difficult to bring to book. 

 Trapping is seldom efficacious, and sitting up for them 

 by moonlight only occasionally effective. Sometimes 

 in the very early morning they may be found feeding 

 in the open, but by sunrise they are almost always back 

 in the densest brake. They are more sociable than 

 warthogs, and are sometimes seen in quite considerable 

 troops. Where a few of these pigs have been feeding 

 during the night, the ground, sometimes for half an acre, 

 is left torn up as if by a plough, while broken bits of roots 

 and branches are scattered in all directions, and over- 

 turned bushes and other debris complete the scene of 

 confusion. 



Bush pigs are animals of considerable courage, and 

 charge fiercely when wounded or bayed by dogs, so that 

 under such circumstances they must be approached with 

 caution. They are partial to ostrich eggs, when oppor- 

 tunity offers, and for that and other reasons are con- 

 sidered as vermin in the Transvaal : not that their 

 existence, as a species, is in the least threatened thereby, 

 or their numbers likely even to be appreciably reduced. 



THE FOREST HOG. The following notes on the habits of 

 the giant hog were made by the writer while in East Africa 

 recently. The very small degree of information at present 

 to hand concerning this animal must be the excuse for 

 offering them, as they are of the roughest character. 



Giant hogs are found in the dense forests of East Africa 

 at heights of 7000 or 8000 feet. They go about singly 

 (probably old boars) or in parties of from eight to ten. 

 They like to root about in much the same manner as the 

 South African bush pig, though their excavations are still 

 deeper. They favour the thickest jungle, in which they 

 have regular " runs " or tunnels excavated through the 

 dense undergrowth. These tunnels are from two to 



