PIGS’ TROTTERS 
and- below the eyes are especially large; and their 
situation recalls the fable wherein Momus is made to 
criticize the bull made by Zeus on the grounds that the 
horns should have been placed below the eye so that it 
could see where to strike. The wart hog can, or, at 
least, could; for it uses its long and upcurved tusks 
for aggressive purposes. These tusks, like those of 
others of the pig tribe, notably the babyroussa, are 
perhaps to be looked upon as being originally of a 
pathological nature. Being found useful they were 
retained by Nature. Though the wart hog has these 
weapons ready to hand, it is not of particularly fierce 
nature ; and those at the Zoo have as a rule been placid 
and quite porcine creatures with a fondness for being 
scratched with the end of a walking stick. In Africa 
they go in herds to some extent, and live in the de- 
serted burrows and mounds made by the aard vark 
or Orycteropus. It is related that when leaving these 
burrows they turn a kind of somersault at the front 
door which is apt to be damaging to a bystander who 
is too close. It does not appear whether the wart hog 
evicts the peaceful Orycteropus, or is only an inhabiter 
of deserted houses. Like other pigs, the wart hog has, 
it can readily be observed, four toes on each of its fore 
legs, of which the larger two are in the middle and the 
smaller outside and not reaching the ground. Take 
away the outer, and nearly functionless, toes and the 
state of affairs characteristic of the deer, oxen and 
antelopes is arrived at. In fact the pigs are an ancient 
race, and this is one of the anatomical facts which 
shows it. On the fore limbs are wart-like structures 
caused by the habit of the animal of kneeling. It has 
been lately shown that these warts are not altogether 
produced during the lifetime of their possessor, in re- 
sponse to frequent kneeling, like the horny hand of 
the blacksmith; but the young, before they have 
64 
