226 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



The natural term of life of the pig is longer 

 than that of the sheep, and the frightful mor- 

 tality implied by the above facts is therefore 

 due to violence in nearly every case. If he 

 is not made a meal of by a prowling enemy, 

 he will probably be killed in battle ; for most 

 wild boars will cheerfully attack anything, from 

 a kitten to a locomotive. 



Even this reckless valour of the pig has 

 been made use of by man in the districts which 

 once swarmed with rattlesnakes ; and, curiously 

 enough, directly the grunting warrior appears, 

 the snake seems to know that he has met his 

 match. I should not wonder if some very re- 

 mote and gallant ancestors of the hog bore the 

 brunt of that deadly war between the reptilian 

 and the warm-blooded inhabitants of the earth 

 to which I have several times alluded. 



If so, we owe him a debt of gratitude greater 

 than we imagine. What if, after all, "the 

 gintleman that pays the rint " were the real 

 St Patrick who cleared Ireland of snakes ? 



