THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
and all this in honour of the great wild boar, who as soon as dark 
comes, steals out from the wooded foothills or the stony gorges, and 
trots down to the cultivated grounds to dine.’* 
The average height of a big boar is about 35 inches at the shoulder. 
The colour of the upper parts, cheeks and crown are a grizzled grey-brown, 
whilst the throat, above the snout, and all the lower parts and legs are black. 
A circle of light grey passes along the lips and up the front of the face. The 
largest males weigh as much as 600 lb. (complete), whilst those of North 
Africa probably exceed this weight occasionally. Captain Baldwin gives 
the measurement of a large boar killed by him in the Himalayas as 5 ft. 10 in. 
in length and 36 in. at the shoulder. European tusks seldom exceed 8 in. to 
9 in. in length, whilst records of or over 9 in. or 10 in. are rare. The largest, 
from a boar killed in Scotland (in 1124), hung for many centuries in the 
old Cathedral at St Andrews, and though I tried to trace its present resting- 
place I failed to do so. It was said to be 12 in. in length. Mr Phillipps- 
Wolley mentions a pair of tusks from the Caucasus which he himself 
measured as Ilf in.; and in the 1910 Vienna Exhibition was seen a pair of 
Ilf in. from a boar killed by the present Emperor of Austria. The largest 
European tusk known to exist is a right one, owned by Lord Brackley, 
from a pig killed in Albania. It measures 13 in. Another, from a boar 
killed in the same country, measures 12 in. and belongs to Lord Carnegie. 
The Spanish wild boar is a smaller animal than that of Eastern Europe 
and seldom weighs more than 300 lb., whilst those of the British Isles 
must have been even smaller than this. 
The times of activity of the wild boar, as with so many forest animals, 
are more or less crepuscular or nocturnal. For the greater part of the 
day the single old boars or droves of wild swine lie hidden in thick scrub 
or dense grass and jungle, only coming into the open at dusk to feed. In 
places where they are at constant warfare with the peasants they do not 
move until it is dark and then boldly assail forest edges and cultivated 
ground. On the whole, they are very clean feeders, including in their 
diet a host of roots, nuts, fruit and grain. They can burrow deep into the 
ground with their powerful teeth and often destroy as much as they con- 
sume. In the spring and early summer they keep much to the forests, 
finding in them an abundance of edible roots, whilst in the autumn chest- 
nuts and acorns are a favourite diet; but in early autumn they create much 
havoc in the open fields and are as great a trouble to the owners of 
small crops of grain, millet and Indian corn as the elephant is in Africa. 
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