THE WILD HOG. 385 



THE WILD HOG. 



I have never met with feral Swine in the woods of 

 Westmoreland : in the sombre, high-timbered forests 

 around Shrewsbury, in St. Elizabeth's, they are oc- 

 casionally shot ; but it is in the remote lands near 

 the centre of the island, and especially in the wild 

 lofty districts of the windward end, full of mountain 

 peaks and ridges, that they have chiefly multiplied ; 

 and it is to the experience and inquiries of my friend 

 Mr. Hill, that I am indebted for all that I know of 

 these animals. 



" The character of the Indian wild Hog, which 

 ours very much resembles, is ' a broad flat forehead ; 

 short pricked ears, rather round at their tips, and 

 lying very close to the neck ; the eyes very full, with 



plates six, the third and fourth forming the lower wall of the orbit ; 

 the fifth large and long ; the sixth small. Vertical plate large, five- 

 sided, nearly as broad as long. Occipitals very large. Scales 

 smooth, convex, hexagonal. Abdominal shields in adult 144 ; caudal 

 104 pairs; in the young, abdominal 135; caudal, 11 5 pairs. Length 

 of the larger twelve inches. 



Colour reddish-brown above, softening to white below. An ob- 

 long mark of deep brown passes along the summit of the head, some- 

 what dilated before and behind : from this a brown stripe extends 

 all along the middle of the back, having a tendency on the nape to 

 form confluent rhomboids, like our own Viper. On each side of this 

 a line of regular black dots passes down, and below these a narrow 

 band of brown on each side. The dotted line, as well as the dorsal 

 stripe, become indistinct towards the tail, but the lateral lines con- 

 tinue well marked. The latter pass through the eyes to the muzzle, 

 and are succeeded on each cheek by two indistinct parallel lines. 

 Chin and throat prettily spotted and marbled with dark brown on 

 the white ground, the marks small and confluent. The body, and 

 especially the belly shields, opaline. In age the ground-colour be- 

 comes much darker, and the characteristic markings less distinct. 



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