230 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
these infrequent faults should not render us ungrateful, nor cause 
us to forget its numerous merits. 
It is even this voracity, which sometimes draws the hog into ex- 
cesses to be regretted, which constitutes the most precious of all 
his qualities. 
■ Let us first observe that all which is asserted of the hog applies 
to the wild boar, and vice versa, since they are one and the same 
race. Some families of it have connected themselves with man, 
others have preferred, to the luxuries of servitude, noble independ- 
ence and the poverty of forests. 
The individuals of the two camps have never ceased to live on 
the best understanding with each other, and relations of good 
neighborhood never fail to be established wherever the locality and 
habits of feeding allow it. I have seen an enormous wild boar, 
enticed by too lively an affection for his species, killed in an 
open farm yard. I slew one with my gun, in Africa, in the 
main street of my town, where the same reason had brought 
him. His morals and appetites are the same, wild or tame. Do- 
mestication has only modified the color of his hair, and the power 
of his offensive arms. 
It is quite as easy to civilize the wild boar as to restore the hog 
to savage life ; perhaps more so, for I know in the forests of Lor- 
raine, certain races of hogs, called tame, which rush upon hunters, 
or upon travelers accompanied by dogs, with an energy and feroci- 
ty which I have never seen in the habits of the wild boar. The 
latter only attacks when pushed to extremity. He makes repii- 
sals, and for the guilt of murder, he has always the excuse of le- 
giiimate defense ; while the former, pretending to be tame, which 
charges without provocation, can in no case invoke the benefit of 
extenuating circumstances. 
The hog is the emblem of the miser ; thei e is his great misfor- 
tune. The miser is a being who only begins to be useful after his 
death, but who is particularly repulsive and odious to us all during 
his life. Thus of the hog. 
The voracity of the hog is insatiable as the cupidity of the mi- 
ser. He does not fear to wallow in the mire. He fattens on the 
filthiest substances. Every thing goes into his belly. The same 
