WILD SWINE 



smoothness of the hair would naturally lead us to regard 

 them as belonging to a cultivated and carefully domestic- 

 ated animal. But other members of the pig family which 

 are freely admitted to be uncultivated are quite as remark- 

 able for the fineness and shortness of their coats and 

 smoothness of skin, for instance, the West African river 

 hog {Potamochcerus penicillatus). No one will say that this 

 animal's coat has been improved by cultivation and care, 

 nor has the influence of the cold in our climate at all 

 altered or increased its thickness, although this latter 

 change might have been reasonably expected, seeing that 

 the tiger when brought to Europe always wears a thicker 

 coat in winter than ever he obtains in India. 



Notwithstanding that domestic pigs have been liberated 

 and bred wild in New Zealand and other places, and that 

 they have assumed many of the distinctive habits and 

 rough appearance of wild animals, yet they have not 

 returned to the striped young, and the uniform colour of 

 the wild boar — but are mostly black with white markings, 

 a circumstance quite unknown among the true wild boars. 



RED RIVER HOGS : ' DICK.' 



Many years ago I gave the late Mr. Buckland some 

 notes on the Red River Hog, and which have since ap- 

 peared in the Life of Franh Bucldand, by his brother-in- 

 law, G. Bompas Eyre. 



" During the winter of 1875 I received from Mr. Cross, 

 of Liverpool, a small box about 6 in. square ; upon 

 opening the box a wee striped little pig, little bigger than 

 a rat, put up his little snout and gave a small squeak. 

 With the winter advancing, and knowing from his form of 

 ears that his native home was in West Africa, I took him 

 out and gave him a good feed of warm milk, boiled rice 



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