PIGS. 



427 



winch measured upwards of 12 inches. The Indian wild boar is found in 

 suitable spots throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, and also in the wooded 

 districts of the outer Himalaya, extending into the interior as far as Kashmir. 



Habits. Since the habifcs of a11 swine are very similar, while those of 



the Indian wild boar are best known to Englishmen, we may L dve 

 an account of them in this place. As we have said, pigs generally frequent 

 moist or marshy situations, where there is plenty of cover, and their great 

 characteristic is their habit of turning up the ground with their snouts in search 

 of food, eaving marks by which their presence in a district can be instantly 

 recognised. It is this habit which renders these animals so especially obnoxious 

 to the cultivator. During the day the Indian wild boar makes his lair in any 

 convenient cover, sometimes in tall grass, at others in reeds or sugar-cane and 



A " SOUNDER" UK WILD SWINE. 



at others in bushes or forest, while not unfrequently standing crops other than 

 sugar-cane afford the necessary shelter. In the mornings and evenings he 

 wanders forth in search of food, in cultivated districts devastating the crops. 

 it away from human haunts he depends chiefly upon roots, those of a 

 kind of sedge being especial favourites." Wild pigs will, however, readily 

 teed on the carcases of animals and other carrion, while in Assam they are stated 

 to be m the habit of digging out the fish which bury themselves in the mud 

 during th e dry season. According to Mr. Blanford, pigs are less nocturnal in 

 tneir habits in remote districts than in those where they are much disturbed 

 w Inle the females and young associate in droves or "sounders," usually comprising 

 »om ten to a dozen head, and rarely exceeding twenty, the old boars are solitary. 

 U» number of young produced at a birth by the European species varies from 

 «tt to ten, after a gestation of four months; and frequently at least two litters 

 are produced in a year. 



