PIGS. 339 



the line. I tried this at least sixty times, always with the same 

 result. Then I took a black linen thread, and had no diffi- 

 culty in killing them, as it was so small and black that they 

 could not distinguish it. 



Pigs. 



There can be no doubt that pigs exhibit a degree of 

 intelligence which falls short only of that of the most 

 intelligent Camivora. The tricks taught the so-called 

 ' learned pigs ' would alone suffice to show this ; while the 

 marvellous skill with which swine sometimes open latches 

 and fastenings of gates, &c., is only equalled by that of 

 the cat. The following account of pigs in their wild 

 state shows that they manifest the same kind of sagacious 

 co-operation in facing an enemy as that which we have 

 just seen to be manifested by the bison and the buffalo, 

 although here it seems to be displayed in a manner still 

 more organised : — 



Wild swine associate in herds and defend themselves in com- 

 mon. Green relates that in the wilds of Vermont a person fell in 

 with a large herd in a state of extraordinary restlessness ; they 

 had formed a circle with theii* heads outwards, and the young 

 ones placed in the middle. A wolf was using every artifice to 

 snap one, and on his return he found the herd scattered, but the 

 wolf was dead and completely ripped up. Schmarda recounts 

 an almost similar encounter between a herd of tame swine and 

 a wolf, which he witnessed on the military positions of Croatia. 

 He says that the swine, seeing two wolves, formed themselves 

 into a wedge, and approached the wolves slowly, grunting and 

 erecting their bristles. One wolf fled, but the other leaped 

 on to the trunk of a tree. As soon as the swine reached it 

 they surrounded it with one accord, when, suddenly and instan- 

 taneously, as the wolf attempted to leap over them, they got 

 him down and destroyed him in a moment.^ 



In Bingley's * Memoirs of British Quadrupeds ' (page 

 452) there is an account drawn up at his request by 

 Sir Henry Mildmay, concerning the docility of the pig. 

 The Toomer brothers were Eling's keepers in the New 

 Forest, and they conceived the idea of training a sow to 

 point game. This they succeeded in doing within a fort- 



' Thompson, Passions of Animals, p. 308. 

 z 2 



