THE HOG. 207 



of food. " You see them," says Gilpin, " perfectly 

 happy, going about at their ease, and conversing with 

 each other in short, pithy, interrupted sentences, which 

 are no doubt expressive of their own enjoyments, and 

 of their social feelings." 



To the cottager the pig is often, when properly 

 managed, a very valuable animal. Pork, of all meat, 

 is best adapted to curing and preservation with salt ; 

 and it is said that men will subsist longer upon it, with- 

 out desire of change, than upon any other flesh. In 

 many parts of the country, labourers rarely taste any 

 other, and generally eat it with great relish. 



Pigs readily adapt themselves to change. Thus, if 

 the weather be hot, they cover themselves with mud, 

 probably that they may be freed from vermin, or that 

 flies may be kept off. When the weather is about to 

 alter, they may often be observed running at full speed 

 from a field where they had been before quietly feeding, 

 and making an outcry the whole way to their sties. Im- 

 patient of cold, they collect straw in their mouths, and 

 carry it under a shed in the yard, appearing to invite 

 their companions, who are not so employed, to assist in 

 the task, and towards night all will nestle together, after 

 a struggle for the warmest place. 



Selfish and rapacious as the hog is often thought, no 



