ORDER PACHYDERMATA. 403 



on a ground in which white and fawn colour are mingled. 

 This disappears with the second change of hairs. 



The old boar lives usually alone; but the females unite 

 together, and form with their little ones very numerous 

 troops for mutual defence. This takes place especially 

 during the nonage of their offspring. The mothers then 

 become furious ; the strongest oppose the danger, pressing 

 one against the other, and placing the little ones behind. 



The chase of the Wild Boar is extremely dangerous. The 

 great strength of the animal, and its powerful tusks, render 

 it very formidable to the dogs and hunters. When forced 

 to quit its retreat, it retires at first but slowly, and de- 

 struction is the lot of the dogs which press it too closely. 

 The instant it is wounded it stops, and rushes on him from 

 whom it appears to have received the blow. It is on such 

 occasions that the Boar is truly terrible : he tramples under 

 foot and tears in pieces everything in his way. It is at 

 about four years old that the boars are most difficult to be 

 hunted : they will run for a very long time, and their tusks 

 being at that age straighter and more trenchant, inflict 

 much deeper wounds. The old boars do not run to the 

 same distance, and cannot wound so severely with their 

 curved tusks. The chase is usually performed by large 

 dogs of the mastiff breed. 



The Wild Boar seeks his food in the evening ; it com- 

 mits desperate devastation in the cultivated fields which 

 adjoin his native forests, and, when pressed by hunger, 

 will not hesitate to attack even living animals. 



This species is found in the temperate regions of Europe 

 and Asia, and we are also assured that it exists in Syria, 

 India, and the northern parts of Africa. There can be no 

 doubt that this species is the root of our Domestic Hog. 

 In the South Sea Islands, however, it may be observed that 

 there is a small black variety with short legs, and the 

 Wild Boar is not known in those islands. The mode in- 



