396 THE HOG. 



grub up from the earth. They devour animal substances, 

 but they do not seek to capture other animals by pursuit. 

 Like the thick-skinned animals to which they are allied, 

 the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Hippopotamus, and the 

 Tapir, they delight in humid and shadowy places. They 

 are voracious, and bold in their own defence, but have nothing 

 of the thirst of blood which distinguishes the carnivorous 

 tribes. Their voice is a kind of groan, or grunt, though, 

 when wounded, they utter piercing cries : their senses of 

 smell and hearing are eminently acute. 



The species may be divided into two groups, ls, Those 

 inhabiting the Old Continents ; and, 2d, Those proper to the 

 New ; namely (1.), The Wild Hogs of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, the Babiroussa of the Indian Islands, and the Wood 

 Swine and Wart-bearing Hogs of Africa ; and (2.), The Pec- 

 caries of America. 



The WILD HOG or Wild Boar, Sus aper, is greatly the 

 most diffused and important. He can be domesticated with 

 the utmost facility ; and, in a single generation, his descend- 

 ants relinquish the habits proper to them in the state of 

 nature. 



The BABIROUSSA, Sus babtrussa, is found in Sumatra, Java, 

 and other Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and some say 

 in the marshes of the Indus. He is of lighter form than the 

 common Wild Hog. He is thinly covered with bristly hairs 

 of a reddish-brown colour, and he is distinguished by the 

 remarkable position of his upper tusks, which, penetrating 

 the skin, bend upwards like horns rising from the snout. 

 He grunts in the manner of the common Swine, but when 

 irritated he utters a hoarse growl. These creatures asso- 

 ciate in herds, dwelling in the impenetrable marshes of the 

 sea-coasts, where they feed on herbs and shell-fish. When 

 pursued, they throw themselves into rivers or the sea, and 

 swim with ease and swiftness. They are sometimes seen in 

 large herds swimming from island to island, or crossing 

 the broad estuaries of rivers. It is then that they are 



