THE 
HOG. 
HISTORY. 
The Hog Family comprehends various species, and, according to the views of modern Zoologists, several genera. All the 
species are allied in the form, temperament, and habits of the animals: the face is prolonged, truncated, and terminated by a 
moveable cartilaginous disc ; the skin is thick; the body is covered more or less with bristles and hairs; the neck is strong and 
muscular ; the limbs are stout and short. All the species feed on plants, but especially on roots, which their strong and flexible 
trunk enables them to grub up from the earth. They devour animal substances, but they do not seek to capture other animals by 
pursuit. Like the thick-skinned animals to which they are allied,—the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Hippopotamus, and the 
Tapir,—they delight in humid and shadowy places. They are voracious, and bold in their own defence, but have nothing of the 
thirst of blood which distinguishes the carnivorous tribes. Their voice is a kind of groan, or grunt, though, when wounded, they 
utter piercing cries : their senses of smell and hearing are eminently acute. 
The species have been divided into three genera : 1st, The true Hogs, comprehending the Wild Hog of Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, the Babiroussa of the Indian Islands, the Papuan Hog of New Guinea, and the Wood Swine of southern Africa: 2 d. The 
Wart-bearing Hogs of Africa : 3 d, The Peccaries of America. 
Of the true Swine, the Wild Hog or Wild Boar, Sus aper , is greatly the most diffused and important. He is found through¬ 
out the greater part of the Old Continent. He can be domesticated with the utmost facility, and is .the undoubted progenitor of 
the greater part, if not of all, of the domestic kinds. 
The Babiroussa, Sus babirussa , is found in Sumatra, Java, and other Islands of the Eastern Archipelago. He is of lighter 
form than the common Wild Hog. He is thinly covered with bristly hairs of a reddish-brown colour, and he is distinguished by 
the remarkable position of his upper tusks, which, penetrating the skin, bend upwards like horns rising from the snout. He 
grunts in the manner of the common Swine, but when irritated he utters a hoarse growl. These creatures associate in herds, 
dwelling in the impenetrable marshes of the sea-coasts, where they feed on herbs and shell-fish. When pursued, they throw 
themselves into rivers or the sea, and swim with ease and swiftness. They are sometimes seen in large herds swimming from 
island to island, or crossing the broad estuaries of rivers. It is then that they are attacked with spears by the Malays and other 
natives, from canoes, and slain in such numbers that the waters are dyed with their blood. The people preserve their skins and 
fat, which last is melted, and used in place of butter or oil. Individuals are easily tamed, and they could doubtless be subjected in 
any number to permanent servitude. A male and female were brought by the Astrolabe to Paris : the female bred after arriving 
in Europe, but the progeny perished in the second or third year, of diseased lungs, from the effects of cold; the male lived the 
usual term, and became very fat, feeding and grovelling in the manner of common swine. The female used to cover him with 
straw, and slip underneath the litter, so that both remained concealed from view. 
In the woods of the large and fertile Island of Papua or New Guinea, have been found a race of small Hogs which have 
been classed as a distinct species, under the name, Sus papuensis. They are destitute of tusks, and the tail is wanting. The 
colour is brown, and, in the young state, five streaks of bright yellow extend along the back. The animals are caught by the na¬ 
tives in the woods when young, and retained in a state of captivity. 
On the discovery by European voyagers of the lovely Islands of the South Seas, a kind of Hog was found in great numbers, 
the only large quadruped possessed by the simple natives, and affording them their principal animal food. He was held by 
them in a kind of veneration, and was offered up to their divinities as the most acceptable sacrifice. They could give no account 
of his introduction amongst them, but regarded him as coeval with themselves. They fed him on the fruit of the bread-fruit tree, 
either in its natural state, or made into a paste, together with yams and such other nutritive plants as the islands produced. 
His flesh is described by our early travellers as delicious, the fat resembling in delicacy and flavour the finest butter. It has 
been doubted by some whether this race is of the widely diffused Siamese breed, to be afterwards referred to, or whether it is al¬ 
lied to the Sus papuensis , or some other species yet undescribed, proper to the Islands of the Eastern Seas. 
The Wood Swine, or masked African Boar, Sus larmtus , is a native of Madagascar, and the south of Africa. He has a 
