224 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



and would be in danger of becoming separated 

 and destroyed piecemeal by pork - eating foes. 

 But the grunts of each would still advertise his 

 presence to his hidden neighbours ; and so the 

 individual members of the herd would never 

 lose touch with the main body. Then there 

 are grunts and grunts. If one of my readers 

 will imitate the ingenious Mr Garner, and take 

 a phonograph to the nearest pigsty, he might 

 get material to make up a book on the language 

 and grammar of the hog. However thick the 

 jungle, the wild pig could, by taking note of 

 the pitch and emphasis of the grunts to right 

 and left of him, tell pretty much what his hidden 

 colleaofues were thinking; about. 



There is another peculiarity of the Suidae, 

 or pig tribe, which is of great importance to 

 the farmer, and which at the same time tells 

 a tragic tale of the circumstances of the early 

 forefathers of our domestic hogs. They are very 

 prolific, and produce from half-a-dozen to twenty 

 at a birth ; whereas the other animals which we 

 have discussed produce, as a rule, only one or two. 



Now, in a state of freedom the number of 

 individuals of an established species remains 

 fairly constant from year to year. If they 



