THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 'J^ 



The Wart Hog {Phacochoerus cethiopicus). Fig. ^2, Plate IX. 

 — ( Vlaakte Vaark of the Dutch ; Colubee of the Bechuanas.) 



\Height seldom exceeds 27 inches^ being more frequently under 

 than over that standard. General colour of the skin varies from 

 black to earth brown, the bristles on neck and top of head blackish 

 brown, long, erect, and growing, as if were, from a common centre, 

 those on body sparsely distributed, greyish, and short; a patch of 

 white closely-set bristles on either cheek; tail long, narrow, tufted at 

 extremity, and carried erect when in progression; snout broad and 

 oval-shaped, ending abruptly a little in front of tusks. The tusks of 

 both jaws developed, but those of the upper to an enormous extent, 

 some occasionally exceeding 12 inches along the curve. There are 

 four warty excrescences on the face, those on cheeks under eyes 

 large and prominent, those placed on the nose behind the tusks 

 being smaller \ 



This is the common Wild Boar of the Interior of South Africa. It 

 is probable that some still remain in the forest regions of the 

 Eastern districts of the Cape Colony and Natal ; in Northern Zulu- 

 land and the Delagoa Bay country they are reported to be fairly 

 common in places, whilst a few are certainly to be found in the 

 thick bush skirting the Molopo, West of Pitsani, as they were 

 observed there last year ; but otherwise in Bechuanaland, the 

 Protectorate, or the Transvaal, they are anything but plentiful. 

 Between the Crocodile and Zambesi Rivers, in unfrequented places, 

 they may be generally met more or less numerously, and in the low 

 country about Sofala they are very common, but keeping very close 

 to the dense thorn-bush during the day, they do not, as a rule, 

 form a large proportion of a hunter's bag. It is quite unusual to 

 find them straying far from water except after heavy rains. If the 

 ferocity of the Wart Hog were at all proportionate to the extent of 

 its tusks, it would indeed prove a most formidable antagonist, but a 

 really good powerful dog ought at any time to be capable of holding 

 one fast, although he might not be able, single handed, to kill him. 

 Indeed, as a contribution to the traveller's sport, very little may be 

 depended upon from the pigs, except when they are ferreted out by 

 the wagon dogs in the bush. Opinions are divided as to the merits 

 of the pork as an article of food ; some may consider it rather a 

 luxury, but the majority of those who have partaken of it agree that 

 it should be avoided unless where absolutely necessary. 



