THE INDIAN HOG. 339 



or of underwood jungle, within a certain distance, for him to fly to in case of molestation, and especially 

 to serve as a retreat during the hot season, as otherwise he would find no shelter. The sugar-cane is 

 his great delight, both as being his favourite food, and as affording a high, impervious, and unfre- 

 quented situation. In these, Hogs commit great devastation, especially the breeding Sows, which not 

 only devour, but cut the canes for litter, and throw them up into little huts, which they do 'with much 

 art, leaving a small entrance which they stop up at pleasure. Sows never quit their young Tigs with- 

 out completely shutting them up. This, indeed, is requisite only for a few days, as the young brood 

 may be seen following the mother, at a round pace, when not more than a week or ten days old! The 

 canes are generally planted about the end of May or beginning of June, in ground rendered extremely 



WILD BOAK. 



fine by digging. For this purpose cuttings of canes are buried horizontally, and with the first showers 

 of the rainy season, which usually commences in the middle of June, the several joints throw out 

 shoots that grow so rapidly, as often to be two or three feet high by the beginning of September. The 

 red cane, called the bun-ook, which is not so valuable as the smaller or yellower sort, begins to ripen in 

 September ; by the end of which month it will have attained the height of seven or eight feet. These 

 serve as the first receptacles for the Wild Hogs, which having suffered, since the harvest in March, all 

 the inconveniences of bad diet, long nightly excursions, scarcity of water, great diurnal heat, and 

 frequent disturbance, arrive among them in excellent running order. It should be observed that 

 throughout India a custom pi-evails of setting fire to the grass jungles in the month of May, when they 

 are completely dry, for the purpose of increasing the growth of the new grass, by the stimulus of the 

 ashes which are washed in with the first showers in June." Williamson goes on to say that "the 

 bun-ook is commonly cut in November, and the Hogs then shift to the yellow canes, which are by that 

 time forward enough to serve as sufficient cover. Canes require much manure and excellent tillage ; 



