302 
WILD SWINE. 
THE Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) is the progenitor 
of all our common swine, and 
Wild Boar. © 
(The progenitor jn the photograph shown the 
of our 5 . 
Domestic face will be observed to be 
Swine.) long and the skull depressed, 
whereas in the domestic hog the face is 
shorter and the skull more elevated; other- 
wise, 2 form and general appearance, they 
do not materially differ. Into the merits of 
pork we will not enter, but it 
is fortunate that multitudes of 
people enjoy a food which is so 
easily obtained, for no domestic 
animal is so widely dispersed 
through the world. It thrives 
and lives on every kind of. food, 
and its stomach can digest what 
few other animals can swallow 
with impunity. No animal con- 
verts a given quantity of nutritive 
food so soon into fat, or can be 
made fat on so great a variety of 
food. The voracity and destruc- 
tive habits of the hog are too well 
known to require description. 
IS 
THESE animals (Babirusa  al- 
furus) are chiefly notable for their 
Animal Life 
four tusks, the two strongest of 
‘ which proceed from the 
Babirusa, 5 : 
formerly under jaw, like those of 
called the the wild boar; the other 
Stag=Hog. 
two rise like horns on 
the outside of the upper jaw just 
above the nose, and extend in a 
curve over the eyes, almost touching 
the forehead, and fully twelve mches 
in length. They are of beautiful 
ivory, but not so hard as those 
of the elephant. No satisfactory 
explanation seems to have been given 
of the use of these large tusks in the 
male; those of the lower jaw are 
doubtless intended as defensive and 
offensive weapons, but the curved 
growth of these and the upper, or 
superior, pair prevents their proving 
very formidable instruments of attack, 
and there seems more aptness in the 
notion that they are employed to 
support the head by suspension to 
a bough whilst the animal is sleeping in 
the standing position. Even this idea is 
based. more upon theory than observation. 
The form of the animal is not so heavy 
as in the case of the other species of 
the hog illustrated; it is covered with 
a very short wool-like hair instead of 
bristles, and the skin is exceedingly soft 
and thin. 
BABIRUSA. 
