July 25, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
13 5 
A Deer and Peccary Hunt. 
For the last five years I have hunted deer in 
Northern Wisconsin, but on account of the new 
law limiting nonresidents to one deer, while 
residents can kill two, notwithstanding the 
ratio of $25 to $1, I determined to seek a new 
hunting field; so the middle of December last 
found me en route to Texas. I went direct to 
San Antonio, where I was joined by my brother, 
James, and Gen. A. S. Roberts and son, all of 
Austin. 
One day’s trip took us to the Nueces River 
bottoms, where we were made comfortable at 
one of the few ranch houses in the vicinity. I 
say few houses, because the ranch on which we 
hunted contained 120,000 acres. Quite a fair¬ 
sized pasture. Of course, I was a tenderfoot 
not to the hunt, but to the country. I was ex¬ 
pecting to see a rattlesnake ten feet long under 
each bunch of prickly pear. However, a ride 
of fifteen miles disclosed no snakes. We saw 
numbers of jack rabbits and cottontails and 
every fifteen minutes or so we jumped a covey 
of quail, so on our arrival at the hunting 
grounds I had about lost my fear of snakes. 
Before continuing I must explain two neces¬ 
sities to successful hunting in Texas. The first 
is your license, which costs $15 for nonresidents, 
and is obtained from the Fish, Game and Oyster 
Commissioner at Austin. All hunting licenses 
expire on Dec. 3 b irrespective of the time of 
issue. The game laws are liberal. One can 
kill and take home three buck deer, three wild 
turkeys, seventy-five ducks and twenty-five other 
game birds. The next essential is to obtain 
permission of the landowner before hunting on 
his ground. All of the ranches are posted and 
the Texas laws are severe on trespassers or 
poachers. Our party being law abiding, we 
had conformed to the preceding necessities; 
furthermore we had a letter from the ranch 
owner to his foreman, asking him to take care 
of us and to show us around. I half suspected 
from the good time we had, that the foreman 
enjoyed the vacation fully as much as we did. 
At any rate, he entertained us royally, and we 
trees and bushes in this locality are armed with 
thorns—a wonderful provision of nature to pro¬ 
tect them in this arid country. Had they no 
thorns, doubtless they would have become ex¬ 
tinct years ago from the attacks of browsing 
animals. The mesquite trees are very similar 
to Osage orange trees in the North. 
On arriving at the river we separated, each 
party going in a different direction with in¬ 
structions to return to the wagon at 11 A. M. 
I was relegated to the careful guidance of Jose 
to keep me from getting lost. If the truth were 
known it was to keep the other members of 
the party from searching for me along about 
dinner time. We had proceeded about eighty 
rods, when I heard a rush and a scurry, and 
Jose gave a low whistle, and pointing into the 
chaparral, whispered, “Javelin” (pronounced 
havaleen). Looking in the direction in which 
across the chest from shoulder to shoulder. 
Considerably behind the middle of the back is 
a large peculiar gland which secretes an oily 
substance with a powerful musky disagreeable 
odor. I frequently knew the peccary were in 
close proximity by getting the scent on the 
breeze. The scent is not unlike that of a skunk. 
The length of head and body is about forty 
inches, and I should guess the weight of a full- 
grown boar to be about fifty pounds. If the 
meat is to be used as food—as it is by the Mexi¬ 
cans sometimes—it is necessary to speedily re¬ 
move the gland, otherwise it will taint the whole 
flesh in a short time. 
It is said the females never produce more 
than two young at a birth. I saw several of 
the young. They were about the size of small 
rabbits and of a yellow color. 1 he peccary is 
omnivorous, living on roots, fallen fruits 
AFRICAN ZEBRAS AND GNUS (SEE PAGE I 38 .) 
Reproduced from C. G. Schillings’ “In Wildest Africa,” by permission of Harper & Bros 
had the time of our lives. 
As previously mentioned, the snake question 
had occupied my mind a considerable part of the 
previous day. As the air was balmy, we had 
retired with open windows, but the shutteis 
were closed. About the time I was well asleep 
a bat began to “sing” on the shutter about six 
inches from my head. About the same time 
my brother touched me with his foot and I, in 
my half dazed condition, thought at once of a 
rattlesnake. I made a leap and landed in the 
middle of the room, struck a light—and found 
the bat. 
Four-thirty next morning we were called to 
breakfast. I must confess that three days and 
nights of continuous travel made me legard 
my bed as my best friend. However, we arose 
and did full justice to a typical Southern break¬ 
fast with hot rolls, cornbread, syrup, etc. 
Breakfast over, we found our host ready with 
his wagon and two mules; also two saddle 
ponies in charge of his vaquero Jose. The 
ponies were to pack deer from places inacces¬ 
sible to the wagon. We drove four miles to our 
hunting grounds, and how those mules did fly 
under the careful driving of the ranchman and 
the persuasive tonic of a mesquite switch. All 
he pointed in the dim light of breaking day I 
nad my first view of the peccary or javelin. 
With the crack of the rifle I saw my game turn 
over. Jose said, “No hit. I said, \es, hit! 
Going over, I found I had killed a female. We 
hung it in a tree. 
The peccary is peculiar to the New W orld. 
They are distributed from the Red River in 
Arkansas through Central and South America 
as far south as the Rio Negro River in Pata¬ 
gonia. They are the only surviving members of 
the large group represented in the old world 
by the various species of swine—wart hogs and 
hippopotami. Their teeth are somewhat dif¬ 
ferent from the true swine. The upper canines 
have their points directed downward, and they 
are very sharp with cutting hinder edges com¬ 
pletely covered with enamel. The lower 
canines are larger and directed upward and out¬ 
ward. The stomach is more complex than in 
the true pigs, almost approaching that of a 
ruminant. The snout resembles that of a true 
pig. The ears are small, ovate, erect, and there 
is no external appearance of a tail. The body 
is well covered with a thick bristly hair of a 
dark gray color with a whitish band passing 
worms and carrion. When they live in the 
proximitv of cultivated lands they inflict great 
damage on the growing crops. It is said their 
remains have been found in caves in \ irginia 
and South Carolina. 
We hunted the rest of the morning, but saw 
no deer, although sign was abundant. Fie- 
quently we started javelin in the brush, but got 
no shots. However, later in the day, in com¬ 
ing into an open arroya, I saw several peccary 
and succeeded in killing five fine boars before 
they got away. As I learned later to my edifi¬ 
cation, woe to the man who simply wounds him 
and starts him to squeal. Better it is for him 
unless a tree is handy—that he had lemained at 
home. 
One of my school-boy recollections was a 
picture in a geography of a South American 
hunter treed by peccary. So, emboldened by 
my success in killing them, I resolved to ex¬ 
plode or at least test some of the stories I had 
heard from childhood. A few days later, while 
hunting alone, my opportunity came. Sneaking 
quietly through the undergrowth, I came on to 
a herd of possibly fifty or sixty feeding in a 
comparatively open place. I watched them 
