HUNTING PECCARIES IN TEXAS. 387 



and feet, also, are much like those of the boar. Its food 

 partakes of the character of that of both the boar and the 

 hedge-hog, consisting of mast, wild fruits, grains, grasses, 

 shoots of cane, roots, herbs, reptiles, &c. 



But, with all its other peculiarities to answer for, the 

 drollest is yet to come. I refer to their mode of sleeping. 

 They usually frequent those heavy cane-brakes, through 

 which are scattered, at wide intervals, trees of enormous 

 size and age. These, from their isolated condition, are 

 most exposed to the fury of storms, and, therefore, most 

 liable to be thrown down. We find their giant stems 

 stretched here and there, through the cane-brakes of Texas, 

 overgrown with the densest thickets of the cane, matted 

 together by strong and thorny vines. In these old trees 

 the Peccaries find their favorite lodgings. Into one of these 

 logs a drove of twenty or thirty of them will enter at night, 

 each one backing in, so that the last one entering stands 

 with his nose at the entrance. The planters, who dread 

 them and hate them as well on account of the ravages on 

 their grain crops which they commit, the frequent destruction 

 or mutilation by them of their stock, their favorite dogs, 

 and sometimes horses even, as on account of the ridiculous 

 predicaments, such as taking to a tree, or running for clear 

 life, ect., to which they have been subjected themselves by 

 them, seek their destruction with the greatest eagerness. 

 When a hollow log has been found, which bears the marks 

 of being used by them, they wait with great impatience till 

 the first dark, cloudy day of rain. A dark drizzle is the 

 best, as it is well known that on such days they do not 

 leave their lodgings at all. 



The planter, concealing himself just before day carefully 

 out of view, but directly in front of the opening of the log, 

 awaits in patient silence the coming of sufficient light. Soon 

 as the day opens, peering cautiously through the cane he 



