32-4 A WILD HOG-HUNT IN TEXAS. 



dable and dangerous enemy. The cougar is often killed 

 and torn to pieces by a drove of peccaries, that he has 

 been imprudent enough to attack. Indeed, this fierce 

 creature will not often meddle with the peccaries when he 

 sees them in large numbers. He attacks only single 

 ones; but their "gruntings," which can be heard to the 

 distance of nearly a mile, summon the rest, and he is 

 surrounded before he is aware of it, and seized by as 

 many as can get around him. 



The Texian hunter, if afoot, will not dare to disturb 

 a drove of peccaries. Even when mounted, unless the 

 woods be open, he will pass them by without rousing their 

 resentment. But, for all this, the animal is hunted by 

 the settlers, and hundreds are killed annually. Its ra- 

 vages committed upon the cornfields make them many ene- 

 mies, who go after them with a desire for wholesale 

 slaughter. Hounds are employed to track the peccary 

 and bring it to bay, when the hunters rides up and finish 

 the chase by their unerring rifles. A flock of peccaries 

 when pursued, will sometimes take shelter in a cave or 

 cleft of the rocks, one of their number standing ready at 

 the mouth. When this one is shot by the hunter, another 

 will immediately rush out and take its place. This too 

 being destroyed, will be replaced by a third, and so on 

 until the whole drove has fallen. Should the hounds 

 attack the peccary while by themselves, and without the 



