338 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



three feet without the tail. The female is smaller than the male, and with smaller tusks. The hairs 

 of the body are coarse, intermixed with a downy wool. On the neck and shoulders the hairs take 

 the form of bristles, being long enough to assume a kind of mane which the animal is enabled to 

 erect if irritated. The young has the body marked with longitudinal stripes of a reddish colour. 



In its habits the Wild Boar is by choice herbivorous, feeding on plants, fruits, and roots ; but it 

 will also eat Snakes, Lizards, and various insects, and when pressed by hunger nothing appears to come 

 amiss to its voracious appetite ; it is stated that even dead Horses are sometimes called into requisition. 

 The Boar is nocturnal in its habits, rarely leaving the shadow of the woods in the day-time, and coming 

 forth as twilight approaches in search of food, delighting in roots often deeply embedded in the soil, and 

 which its keen sense of smell enables it easily to detect. Much mischief is often done by this animal, 

 which ploughs up the ground in continuous furrows for long distances, and is not content, like the 

 domesticated variety, with ploughing up a spot here and there. 



The Wild Boar was formerly an inhabitant of Great Britain. According to Bell, " About 

 the year 940, the laws of Hoel Dha direct that it shall be lawful for the chief of his huntsmen to chase 

 the Boar of the woods from the fifth of the ides of November (9th), until the calends of December 



DENTITION OF "WILD BOAR. 



(1st), Cap. xxi. sect. 14." In the next century Bell states that "the numbers had perhaps begun to 

 diminish, since a forest law of William I., established in A.D. 1087, ordained that any who were found 

 guilty of killing the Stag, the Roebuck, or the Wild Boar, shoiild have their eyes put out ; and some- 

 times the penalty appears to have been a painful death. It appears," continues Bell, " that Charles I. 

 tui'iied out some Wild Swine in the New Forest, for the purpose of restoring the breed to that 

 royal hunting-ground ; but they were all of them destroyed during the civil war. A similar attempt 

 was made in Bere Wood, in Dorsetshire ; but one of the Boars having injured a valuable Horse belong- 

 ing to the worthy Nimrod who exhibited this specimen of sporting epicurism, he caused them to be 

 destroyed." 



The Wild Boar probably became extinct in Britain before the reign of Charles I. ; while in 

 Ireland it was abundant as late as the seventeenth century. 



THE INDIAN HOG* differs but little in general appearance from the European Wild Boar, and is 

 looked upon in the East as a most exciting object of the chase, its speed, endurance, and courage 

 making it one of the most formidable and dangerous animals that can possibly be encountered. 



The habits of this animal are admirably portrayed by Williamson, in his " Oriental Field 

 Sports." After describing the extraordinary speed this creature is possessed of, equalling that of a 

 good Horse, and asserting that a moderate-sized Hog can, and often does, overthrow Horses and their 

 riders, he states that " The Wild Hog delights in cultivated situations ; but he will not remain where 

 water is not at hand, in which he may, iinobserved, quench his thirst and wallow at his ease. Nor 

 will he resort for a second season to a spot which does not afford ample cover, whether of heavy grass 



* Sus scrofa (Indian variety). 





