THE BUSH HOG. 50? 



back, neck, and sides ; but the forehead, cranium, and ears, as well as the 

 legs, are black. The long hairs which we have described on the face and 

 around the eyes and the mane are white, or yellowish-white. The 

 young ones, like all young wild swine, are striped, and are very lively 

 and prettily marked. 



Although this hog was known and had been seen in captivity by 

 Markgrave in the sixteenth century, we still know little respecting its 

 wild life on the coast of Guinea and near the Camaroons River. The 

 first living pair which was brought to Europe arrived at the London 

 Zoological Gardens in 1852, and specimens are still rare in collections. 

 Thev do not, in captivity, display any great divergence in their habits 

 from the common wild boar. They may be described as good-natured, 

 on the whole, not permitting their keeper to take liberties with them, 

 but not displaying the vicious temper of the much smaller peccaries. 

 They required to be well-sheltered from the English climate, and seemed 

 to enjoy rolling in their deep bed of straw in which they half-buried 

 themselves. Like the domestic sow, these hogs ate their offspring, not 

 merely when newly-born, but gradually during the first week. 



The BUSH Hog, Potamoclicerus Africa?tus, is another species, inhabit- 

 ing South Africa; it is somewhat larger than the one just described, and 

 has a more savage expression, which does not belie its temper. It is 

 called by the Dutch Boers the Bosch-Vark, and chiefly frequents 

 hollows or excavations in the forests. It is very variable in color, some 

 specimens being dark brown, others brown arid white, others bright 

 chestnut. An English traveler writes: "Where the locality is suf- 

 ficiently retired and wooded to afford shelter to the bush-bucks which I 

 have mentioned, we may generally expect to find traces of the Bush Pig. 

 The Bush Pig is about two feet six inches in height and five feet in 

 length ; his canine teeth are very large and strong, those in the upper- 

 jaw projecting horizontally ; those in the lower, upwards. He is covered 

 with long bristles, and taking him all in all, he is about as formidable- 

 looking an animal, for his size, as can be seen. The Bosch-Varks 

 traverse the forests in herds, and subsist on roots and young shrubs. A 

 large hard-shelled sort of orange, with an interior filled with seeds, 

 grows in great quantities on the flats near the Natal forests ; this is a 

 favorite fruit of the wild pigs, and they will come out of the bush of an 

 evening and roam about in search of windfalls from these fruit-trees. 



The Kaffir tribes, although they refuse to eat the flesh of the domestic 



