The Hog 89 



bite down leafy bushes and run almost incredi- 

 ble distances, holding them in their mouths. 

 In making beds of sedge they ingeniously avoid 

 the tussocks, by planting their fore feet firmly 

 upon the roots, then gathering a mouthful of 

 stalks, and gnawing and snatching them off. 

 But they are so lazy they will cling to the 

 same bed year after year, if permitted, only 

 now and then bringing in a little fresh bed- 

 stuff. A drove-bed is always big and broad, 

 but if fifty sleep in it, the aim of each indi- 

 vidual pig is always to lie in the middle with 

 all the rest for cover. As a result, upon nights 

 when the cold strengthens greatly, there is not 

 much rest in it, but a continuous hurly-burly 

 of crowding and squealing. After deep snows, 

 or in days of cold rain, hogs keep in the bed 

 until driven out by hunger. Young pigs creep 

 out of it at three days old, if the weather is 

 fine. If it is cold and stormy, they lie inside 

 a week. 



Before they come out, it is easy to tell how 

 many the sow is suckling. Like the most of 

 litter-borne animals, pigs keep to the teat they 

 first began to suck. After a day or two teats 

 that do not suckle grow dry and small — thus 

 by the teats in milk, you may know the num- 

 ber of pigs. A sow always lies down to suckle, 

 though if the pigs are hungry they are apt to 

 catch the teats, and squeal shrill complaints 



