426 On a new form of the Hoy kind or Suidce. [May, 



almost incredible, and yet I am credibly assured that even when the 

 annual clearance of the undergrowth of the forest by fire occasionally 

 reveals the Pigmy Hogs, and the herd is thus assailed at advantage, the 

 males with the help of rough and unopen ground really do resist with 

 wonderful energy and frequent success, charging and cutting the naked 

 legs of their human or other attackers, with a speed that baffles the eye- 

 sight and a spirit which their straight sharp laniaries renders really 

 perplexing if not dangerous. The herds are not large, consisting of 5 

 or 6, to 15 or 20, and the grown males, as I have said, constantly remain 

 with and defend the females and young, perhaps pairing off for a short 

 period in the season of love, of which there are said to be two in the 

 year, and the litter to consist usually of but 3 or 4 young ones. Their 

 food is chiefly roots and bulbs, but they also eat eggs, young birds, 

 insects, and reptiles, having a good deal of the omnivorous propensity 

 proper to the whole family (Suidse). 



The Pigmy Hog is about the size of a large Hare, and extremely 

 resembles both in form and size a young pig of the ordinary wild kind 

 of about a month old, except in its dark and unstriped pelage. The 

 likeness of the limbs and memhers to those of the common Hog is so 

 close that every purpose of general description of the Pigmy Hog is 

 served by pointing to that resemblance, desiring only that heed should 

 be taken by the observer of the shorter jaws, and eye consequently 

 placed midway between the snout and ear ; of the much shorter tail, 

 nude, straight, and not extending so far as the bristles of the rump ; 

 and, lastly, of the smallness of the inner hind toe. The ears also are 

 quite nude, and the abdominal surface of the neck as well as the insides 

 of the limbs and the belly, are nearly so : but the upper and lateral 

 external parts are covered thickly with bristles, even longer and more 

 abundant than those of the wild or tame Hog, save upon the ridge of 

 the neck where the common Hog has always more or less of, and gene- 

 rally a conspicuous, mane, but the Pigmy Hog, little or none. The 

 hairs of the Pigmy Hog are from two inches to two and a quarter long, 

 harsh, simple, or with the tips ordinarily bifidal ; and those of the face 

 and outsides of the limbs shorter only than elsewhere. 



The dimensions have already been stated summarily and will be set 

 down in detail below. The colour of the animal is a black brown, or 

 brown black, shaded vaguely with dirty amber, or rusty red — a result of 



