ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
41 
common. It is generally found in small herds of five 
or six, in low jungle. Its food consists of bulbs and 
roots. The Mechis of the Terai say that the female 
goes with young from five to six months, the litter 
generally being three or four in number. It is very 
shy, and the Mechis trap it with nets and hunt it with 
dogs. A village will catch as many as four or five in a 
season which extends from January to April, and when 
caught very young, it becomes easily domesticated and 
is found tame about the villages. The general colour of 
the animal is brownish. The legs are very graceful, 
and suggest that the little pig must be a good test of 
the running powers of the dogs of the Mechis. This 
species 'was first discovered by that distinguished man, 
Mr. Brian Hodgson, C. S., who was Resident for many 
years at Katmandu. 
The Babirusa, Baba Rtisa , or Pig Deer, Porcus babirusa , 
is found only in two islands, viz., Celebes and Bouro in 
the Austro-Malayan Zoological region. The body of the 
Babirusa is somewhat barrel-shaped, and the dark sooty 
brown skin is almost devoid of hairs or bristles. Its 
greatest peculiarity is the remarkable way in which the 
canines or tusks of the upper jaw are turned directly 
upwards, so that these teeth, which attain a great length in 
the male, pierce through the upper lips and rise up like horns 
over the side of the mouth, and arch backwards, near their 
ends, over the eyes ; the lower tusks standing up outside. 
The function performed by these extraordinary teeth is 
unknown. The back of the throat or pharynx is pro¬ 
vided with remarkable air-sacs, and the stomach consists 
of three chambers. 
In the adjoining compartment is an example of the 
F 
