ATTACK BY A PECCARY. 179 



last, before I met with any more of these animals, 

 and I had almost forgotten that such little vicious 

 brutes were to be found in the woods, when, one 

 November day, as I was crawling towards a pond in 

 the forest where I had seen some wild ducks settle, 

 a peccary boar presented himself, as though to assure 

 me that his kind were not yet quite banished from the 

 land. I was crawling upon my hands and knees, so as to 

 keep myself concealed from the watchful eyes of the 

 ducks ; and this position probably puzzled the boar, 

 for he came sidling up, all the bristles upon his back 

 erected — and that was hunched up into an arch — and 

 all the time he kept gnashing his tushes together, 

 making as much clattering as any half-dozen negro 

 minstrels with ' the bones,' getting closer and closer, 

 and keeping all the while that circling motion which 

 hogs invariably do before they join battle one with 

 another. 



My gun w^as a good, heavy double-barrel, both 

 loaded with a good dose of No. 4 shot; so that I did 

 not feel the least alarmed, and my only anxiety was 

 to get my shot at the ducks with one barrel before I 

 was compelled by my adversary to attend to him, as 

 I knew that at close quarters the load of shot would 

 go through him as solidly as a bullet. So I kept 

 one eye on the ducks, and one upon the boar, and 

 pursued the even tenour of my way. At last I was 



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