528 Great and Small Game of Africa 



and being very retiring in their habits, are seldom seen unless systematically 

 hunted. During the day they lie up in long jungle grass, in patches of 

 thick scrub on the edge of a kloof or forest, or in dense reed-beds. In the 

 rains they make cunningly-devised shelters amongst thick bush and long 

 grass, boring their way in, and using their snouts to such good purpose 

 that a long, wide tunnel is soon formed which is almost impervious to the 

 heaviest rains. They feed throughout the night, generally in herds of from 

 four or five to as many as twenty in number ; at dawn they retire to their 

 lairs, and seldom move again — except in misty or wet weather, when they 

 feed throughout the day — till evening. They do incalculable damage to 

 the crops of the natives, visiting the same gardens night after night, and 

 trampling down what they do not eat. Their principal food consists of 

 roots, berries, and wild fruit, but they also devour reptiles, eggs, and small 

 birds, and on one occasion a number of them partially ate the carcase of a 

 bushbuck which I had wounded and lost a few days previously. They are 

 expert swimmers and swift of foot, and can get over the roughest ground 

 at a great pace. There is no pluckier beast in Africa than a bush-pig, and 

 even a leopard will hesitate before attacking a full-grown boar. Like all 

 wild creatures they have an instinctive dread of man, and will always make 

 their escape from him if possible ; but if surrounded or wounded and 

 brought to bay, they appear to accept the situation with stolid imperturba- 

 bility, and die fighting with rare pluck against all odds, grim and silent to 

 the last. The young are born in December and January — usually five or 

 six in a litter ; they are prettily striped with brown and pale yellow. 

 Bush-pig are very tenacious of life. Their flesh, though somewhat coarse, is 

 most excellent eating in the rainy season. 



In my work entitled In Haunts of Wild Game I have fully described the 

 style of bush-pig hunting in which I at one time engaged, when the rifle 

 was only occasionally used, the game being brought to bay and killed with 

 assegais. It was then that I learned to respect this beast, and to appreciate 



