THE WILD HOG. 
385 
THE WILD HOG. 
I have never met with feral Swine in the woods of 
Westmoreland : in the sombre, high-timbered forests 
around Shrewsbury, in St. Elizabeth’s, they are oc- 
casionally shot ; but it is in the remote lands near 
the centre of the island, and especially in the wild 
lofty districts of the windward end, full of mountain 
peaks and ridges, that they have chiefly multiplied ; 
and it is to the experience and inquiries of my friend 
Mr. Hill, that I am indebted for all that I know of 
these animals. 
The character of the Indian wild Hog, which 
ours very much resembles, is ‘ a broad flat forehead ; 
short pricked ears, rather round at their tips, and 
lying very close to the neck ; the eyes very full, with 
plates six, the third and fourth forming the lower wall of the orbit ; 
the fifth large and long ; the sixth small. Vertical plate large, five- 
sided, nearly as broad as long. Occipitals very large. Scales 
smooth, convex, hexagonal. Abdominal shields in adult 144 ; caudal 
104 pairs; in the young, abdominal 135 ; caudal, 115 pairs. Length 
of the larger twelve inches. 
Colour reddish-brown above, softening to white below. An ob- 
long mark of deep brown passes along the summit of the head, some- 
what dilated before and behind : from this a brown stripe extends 
all along the middle of the back, having a tendency on the nape to 
form confluent rhomboids, like our own Viper. On each side of this 
a line of regular black dots passes down, and below these a narrow 
band of brown on each side. The dotted line, as well as the dorsal 
stripe, become indistinct towards the tail, but the lateral lines con- 
tinue well marked. The latter pass through the eyes to the muzzle, 
and are succeeded on each cheek by two indistinct parallel lines. 
Chin and throat prettily spotted and marbled with dark brown on 
the white ground, the marks small and confluent. The body, and 
especially the belly shields, opaline. In age the ground-colour be- 
comes much darker, and the characteristic markings less distinct. 
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