208 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



For about ten years this prolific mother produced two 

 litters in the jear of about ten at a time, and once above 

 twenty at a litter ; but, as there were near double the 

 number of pigs to that of teats many died. From long 

 experience in the world this female was grown very 

 sagacious and artful : — when she found occasion to 

 converse with a boar she used to open all the intervening 

 gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where 

 one was kept ; and when her purpose was served would 

 return by the same means. At the age of about fifteen 

 her litters began to be reduced to four or five ; and such 

 a litter she exhibited when in her fatting-pen. She 

 proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and tender ; the 

 rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a moderate 

 compulation she was allowed to have been the fruitful 

 parent of three hundred pigs : a prodigious instance of 

 fecundity in so large a quadruped ! She was killed in 

 spring 1775. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXIV 



Selborne, May 9, 1776. 

 Dear Sir, 



. . . . " admOrunt ubera tigres." 



We have remarked in a former letter * how nmch in- 

 congruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to 

 each other from a spirit of sociality ; in this it may not 

 be amiss to recount a different motive which has been 

 known to create as strange a fondness. 



* Letter xxiv. 



