HUNTING PECCARIES IN TEXAS. 387 
and feet, also, are much like those of the boar. Its food 
partakes of the character of that of both the boar and the 
hedge-hog, consisting of mast, wild fruits, grains, grasses, 
shoots of cane, roots, herbs, reptiles, &c. 
But, with all its other peculiarities to answer for, the 
drollest is yet to come. I refer to their mode of sleeping. 
They usually frequent those heavy cane-brakes, through 
which are scattered, at wide intervals, trees of enormous 
size and age. ‘These, from their isolated condition, are 
most exposed to the fury of storms, and, therefore, most 
liable to be thrown down. We find their giant stems 
stretched here and there, through the cane-brakes of Texas, 
overgrown with the densest thickets of the cane, matted 
together by strong and thorny vines. In these old trees 
the Peccaries find their favorite lodgings. Into one of these 
logs a drove of twenty or thirty of them will enter at night, 
each one backing in, so that the last one entering stands 
with his nose at the éntrance. The planters, who dread 
them and hate them—as well on account of the ravages on 
their grain crops which they commit, the frequent destruction 
or mutilation by them of their stock, their favorite dogs, 
and sometimes horses even, as on account of the ridiculous 
predicaments, such as taking to a tree, or running for dear 
life, ect., to which they have been subjected themselves by 
them,—seek their destruction with the greatest eagerness. 
When a hollow log has been found, which bears the marks 
of being used by them, they wait with great impatience till 
the first dark, cloudy day of rain. A dark drizzle is the 
best, as it is well known that on such days they do not 
leave their lodgings at all. 
The planter, concealing himself just before day carefully - 
out of view, but directly in front of the opening of the log, 
awaits in patient silence the coming of sufficient light. Soon 
as the day opens, peering cautiously through the cane he 
