190 



SVIDJK. MAMMALIA.- 



slender build generally. So far as we are aware, the 

 use of the large tusks in the male have not been satis- 

 factorily explained. Those of the lower jaw are doubt- 

 less intended as defensive and offensive weapons ; but 

 as the superior pair often recurve sufficiently to touch 

 the forehead, they cannot prove very formidable instru- 

 ments of attadk. It seems scarcely enough to say that 

 they are designed to protect the eyes from injury during 

 the animal's progress through thick bushes ; and there 

 seems more aptness in the old notion that they are 

 employed to support the head by suspension to a bough, 

 whilst the animal is sleeping in the standing posture. 

 This idea, however, rests more upon theory than upon 

 observation. 



THE .ETHIOPIAN WART-HOG (Phacochcerus ^Elhio- 

 picus) AFRICAN BOAB, INGOOLOOB, or VALKE-VAEK, 

 is an inhabitant of the Cape of Good Hope. In common 

 with its congeners, it is characterized by the possession 

 of a large skull, furnished with frightful-looking tusks ; 

 those of the upper jaw are enormously developed. 

 The teeth vary in number, the incisors being usually 

 absent in this species. The canines are directed 

 upwards and outwards. The molars of the perma- 

 nent series are twenty in number; that is, five on either 

 side above and below; but twelve of these become 

 deciduous, so that in the old animal only eight may be 

 present. The last grinder is remarkably elongated, 

 and consists of numerous cylindrical tubes of dentine 

 and enamel, cemented together. The Wart-hogs are 

 provided with thick, fleshy, wen-like lobes on the 

 cheeks, which, associated with the prominent warty 

 excrescences below the small, sinister-looking eyes, 

 impart additional hideousness to these animals. The 



Valke-vark is about two feet six inches high at the 

 shoulder, and nearly five feet in length. The hide 

 exhibits a reddish-brown colour; the upper parts being 

 clothed with long stiff bristles those on the crown of 

 the head radiating, as it were, from a common centre. 

 The muzzle is broad and truncated abruptly. The tail 

 is about twenty inches long, very narrow, and tufted 

 at the extremity. The Valke-vark is gregarious in its 

 habits. 



.ELIAN'S WART-HOG (Phacochcerus ^Eliani) enjoys 

 a more extensive area of distribution over the African 

 continent than the above ; examples having been pro- 

 cured from Cape Verd, New Guinea, Abyssinia, and 

 the Mozambique. It is also called the Haruja, or 

 Hallup, and is readily distinguished from the foregoing 

 by the presence of incisor teeth in both jaws, of which 

 there are generally two above and six below ; the bones 

 of the forehead being also slightly depressed in this 

 animal, but convex in the valke-vark. The hide 

 exhibits an earth-brown colour, and is sparsely clothed 

 with bristly hairs, except along the central line of the 

 neck and back, where they form a well-developed 

 mane, whose individual bristles are eight or nine inches 

 in length. A single hair bulb commonly gives origin 

 to several bristles. The tail is nearly naked, but tufted 

 at the tip, as in the above. Both species live upon 

 roots and bulbs which they grub up with then- powerful 

 tusks, aided by a kneeling posture to facilitate the wedge 

 and lever-action of the snout. 



THE COLLARED PECCARY (Dicotyles torqualus), or 

 TAJAZOU, is a small kind of hog, living in Mexico and 

 the southern districts of the United States, being at 

 the same time more extensively dispersed over the 



Fig. 74. 





The Collared Peccary (Dicotyles torquatus). 



continent of South America. The members of this 

 genus differ from ordinary pigs in several interesting 

 particulars: Firstly, the hind feet are tridactylous; 

 the outer toes being absent. Secondly, the metacarpal 

 and metatarsal bones of the large anterior digits are 



closely united. Thirdly, the canine teeth, though wcH 

 developed, do not project from the mouth externally. 

 Fourthly, the loins support a peculiar gland which 

 exhales a fetid odour. Fifthly, there is no tail; its 

 place being occupied by a slight prominence or 



