THE BABIROUSSA. 



255 



wilil hog, and it is restless and ferocious. According to Lesson, it feeds chiefly on maize, preferring 

 that grain to other articles of diet. It is partial to the water, and s\\ ims with the greatest ease, often 

 crossing the straits between adjacent islands without any difficulty. 



In a state of captivity, as in the London Zoological Gardens, and the Paris Menagerie, this 

 animal seems to be contented. A pair of them, in the latter collection, produced young. They were 

 fond of nestling under the straw, and, when the male retired to rest, the female would cover him over 

 with litter, and then creep under the straw to him, so that both were concealed. In the former, a 

 young babiroussa was not only quiet, but disposed to familiarity, raising itself up on its hind legs, and 

 putting its snout to the bars of the inclosure, evidently soliciting food. 



Another genus* has intermediate toes, larger than we find them in <SVs, and touching the ground. 

 Canines of the ordinary form, not protruding from the mouth. Incisors and molars resembling those of 

 Sus. A glandular opening in the loins, secreting a fetid humour. No tail. The two great bones of the 

 metacarpus, and those of the metatarsus, united together. These animals, and the Peccaries, are the 

 only indigenous representatives of the porcine group in America ; the hog, which is now common 

 there, being of recent introduction, though it wanders in wild herds. 



THE WHITE-LIPl'EI) PECCARY.t 



THE animals of this species congregate in numerous bands, sometimes, it is said, amounting to more 

 than a thousand individuals of all ages. Thus united, they frequently traverse extensive districts) 





w 



THE WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY. 



the whole troop occupying an extent of a league in length, and directed in their march, if the accounts 

 of the natives are to be credited, by a leader, who takes his station at the head of the foremost 

 rank. Should they be impeded in their progress by a river, the chief stops for a moment, and then 

 boldly plunges into the stream, and is followed by all the rest of the troop. The breadth of the 

 river and the rapidity of the current appear to be but trifling obstacles in their way, and to be over- 

 come with the greatest facility. On reaching the opposite bank, they proceed directly on their course, 

 and continue their march through the plantations which, unfortunately for the owners, may happen to 

 lie in their way, and which they sometimes completely devastate by rooting in the ground lor mai/e, 

 or potatoes, or devouring such fruit as they find there. If they meet with anything unusual in their 



* Dicotylus. Cuvier. t D. labiatus. 



