FOREST CREATURES, 



THE WILD BOAR. 



Sus scrofa, Aper. Linn. 



See, there he stands, the sturdy, sulky-looking brute ; 

 suddenly stopping in his quick dog-trot over the 

 frozen snow ! His head is not so much raised upward 

 as that of a stao\ or a roe, or a fallow-deer would be if 

 some sound or scent surprised him ; it is but little less 

 high than it was before, while the animal was in 

 motion, and, in the whole demeanour of the black 

 bristly creature, there is a stubbornness, and a resolute 

 ill-temper. Nor is the figure, as it stands waiting, 

 enlivened by a bright, expectant, flashing eye, turned 

 towards you and staring mth inquiring boldness. 

 There is nothing of that here ; for the narrow-slitted 

 eye casts a furtive glance, side-long, covert, and 

 scowling from the corner stealthily. You do not see 



B 



