18 



FOREST CREATURES. 



ever, is rather a deformity than otherwise. The hair is 

 long and bristly, and in winter increases in length. 

 Towards summer, when they change their coat, their 

 appearance is well nigh disgusting ; for the hair falling 

 off in patches gives them a mangy look. The head of 



the wild boar is longer and more pointed than that of 

 the tame animal; its ears, too, stand more erect, in 

 order probably to hear more acutely, except when 

 furrowing in the ground, and then they hang droopingly, 

 like those of the common swine. They vnll live to a 

 good age, — twenty — thirty years; and where forage is 

 plentiful attain a considerable size. Some in the 

 Hessian forests weighed 3 cwt., 4 cwt., and 4J cwt. 



