INTELLIGENCE OF THE HOG. 747 



than the cow, the dog, or the sheep, for each of these animals will eat to repletion if 

 furnished with a large amount of food, and will become inordinately fat in consequence 

 of such high feeding. In its wild state it is never found overloaded with fat, and, as 

 has already been seen, is so active an animal that it can surpass a horse in speed, and is 

 so little burdened with flesh that it can endure throughout a lengthened chase. Neither 

 is it naturally a dirty creature, for in its native woods it is as clean as any other wild 

 animal. But when it is confined in a narrow stye, without any possibility of leaving 

 its curtailed premises, it has no choice, but is perforce obliged to live in a constant 

 state of filth. 



The Hog is also thought, and very wrongly, to be an especially stupid animal. It 

 appears stupid for the same reason that it appears to be gluttonous and dirty, merely 

 because no attention has been paid towards developing its intellectual qualities, which 

 have been left to exercise themselves in the narrow confines of the stye and on the 

 daily supply of food. 



When, however, its owner chooses to look upon the Hog as a living being, and not 

 merely as a piece of animated pork or bacon, he finds that it is by no means the stupid 

 animal that it has been supposed to be. " Learned " pigs are familiar to us all, and 

 though the animal does not display any very great amount of literature, it exhibits a 

 capacity of observation and obedience which would hardly have been expected from so 

 maligned an animal. 



The senses of the Hog are wonderfully acute, and are capable of being turned to 

 good purport. So delicate is its sense of smell, that it has been trained to act as a 

 pointer, and in this capacity acted its part so thoroughly, that it would often find birds 

 which the dogs had missed. " Slut," as this animal was called, was very fond of the 

 sport, and would frequently walk a distance of seven miles in hopes of finding some one 

 who was going out with a gun. She would point at every kind of game with the curious 

 exception of the hare, which she never seemed to notice. Although she would will- 

 ingly back the dogs, they were very jealous of her presence, and refused to do their 

 duty when she happened to be the discoverer of any game, so that she was seldom taken 

 out together with dogs, but was employed as a solitary pointer. So sensitive was her 

 nose, that she would frequently point a bird at a distance of forty yards, and if it rose 

 and flew away, she would walk to the place from which it had taken wing, and put her 

 nose on the very spot where it had been sitting. If, however, the bird only ran on, 

 she would slowly follow it up by the scent, and when it came to a stop, she would again 

 halt and point towards it. She was employed in the capacity of pointer for several 

 years, but was at last killed because she had become a dangerous neighbor to the sheep. 



The Hog has also been trained to draw a carriage, a team of four Hogs having been 

 driven by a farmer into the market-place of St. Alban's. After driving once or twice 

 round the market-place, he unharnessed his team, fed them, and in two hours put them 

 again to his chaise, and drove them back to his house, a distance of two or three miles. 

 Absurd as the idea may seem, the Hog has been trained for the saddle as well as for 

 harness. Another farmer, of Norfolk, laid a heavy wager that he would in one hour ride 

 his boar pig from his own house to Wisbeach, a distance of four miles and a quarter. 

 He won his wager easily, accomplishing the distance in less than the given time. The 

 Hog seems to be a good leaper, for a livery-stable keeper, who petted a favorite pig, en- 

 gaged that he could make his pig leap over a door four feet and a half in height. In 

 order to induce the animal to make the effort, he placed the door across the entrance 

 to the stye, and laid a bounteous supply of favorite food within the inclosure. A wild 

 boar has been known to clear a paling nearly nine feet in height, and it is remarkably 

 active in leaping across ravines. 



There is a prevalent idea, that whenever the Hog takes to the water he cuts his own 

 throat with the sharp hoofs of his fore-feet. This, however, is by no means the case, 

 for the animal is an admirable swimmer, and will often take to the water intuitively. 

 In one of the Moray Islands, three domestic pigs belonging to the same litter swam a 

 distance of five miles ; and it is said that if they had belonged to a wild family, they 

 would have swum to a much greater distance. 



The flesh and fat of the Hog is especially valuable on account of its aptitude for 



