PIGS. 



427 



Habits. 



which measured upwards of 12 inches. The Indian wild boar is found in 

 suitable spots throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, and also in the wooded 

 districts of the outer Himalaya, extending into the interior as far as Kashmir. 



Since the habits of all swine are very similar, while those of 

 the Indian wild boar are best known to Englishmen, we may give 

 an account of them in this place. As we have said, pigs generally frequent 

 moist or marshy situations, where there is plenty of cover, and their great 

 characteristic is their habit of turning up the ground with their snouts in search 

 of food, leaving marks by which their presence in a district can be instantly 

 recognised. It is this habit which renders these animals so especially obnoxious 

 to the cultivator. During the day the Indian wild boar makes his lair in any 

 convenient cover, sometimes in tall grass, at others in reeds or sugar-cane, and 



A "SOUNDER" OF WILD SWINE. 



at others in bushes or forest, while not unfrequently standing crops other than 

 sugar-cane afford the necessary shelter. In the mornings and evenings he 

 wanders forth in search of food, in cultivated districts devastating the crops, 

 but away from human haunts he depends chiefly upon roots, those of a 

 kind of sedge being especial favourites. Wild pigs will, however, readily 

 feed on the carcases of animals and other carrion, while in Assam they are stated 

 to be in the habit of digging out the fish which bury themselves in the mud 

 during the dry season. According to Mr. Blanford, pigs are less nocturnal in 

 their habits in remote districts than in those where they are much disturbed. 

 While the females and young associate in droves or " sounders," usually comprising 

 from ten to a dozen head, and rarely exceeding twenty, the old boars are solitary. 

 The number of young produced at a birth by the European species varies from 

 six to ten, after a gestation of four months ; and frequently at least two litters 

 are produced in a year. 



