The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

... and the expense of their food is trifling, as a handful of maize suffices them, and they can go four or five days without water. Their flesh is as good as that of the fat sheep of Castile. There are now public shambles for the sale of their flesh in all parts of Peru, which was not the case when the Spaniards

came first.”

The particularly offensive habit of spitting in the face of people who may be obnoxious to it is well known to those who are in the habit of seeing much of this animal.

THE CHEVROTAINS.

MENTION must be made, before passing to the Pig Tribe, of the smallest of hoofed mammals, the Royal Antelope excepted—the CHEVROTAINS. These little animals are hornless, and intermediate in character between the Deer, Camels, and Pigs. The males have large canine teeth, like those of the Musk-deer, with which the Chevrotains have long been confounded. The range of these animals, of which there are five species known, extends from India and Ceylon, through the Malayan countries, as far east as the island of Palawan, in the Philippine group. One species, the largest of the group, occurs on the west

coast of Africa.

Photo by Miss E. J. Beck. LLAMA. The larger of the two domesticated forms descended from the guanaco.

Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd.] [Aberdeen. ALPACA. A domesticated form, bred solely for its wool, which is of a dark brown or black colour.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PIG AND HIPPOPOTAMUS.

THE PIG TRIBE.

BY H. A. BEYDEN.

them exhibiting strong traces of a general family resemblance, although widelyMANY species and varieties of swine are found in different parts of the world, most of sundered as to habitats and often markedly differing in outward appearance. All are omnivorous; all have the stomach simpler in type than in the Ruminants; and all have front or incisor teeth in the upper jaw. The two great families of swine proper are the Pigs and Peccaries. There has been much discussion among scientists as to the early origin of the various breeds of domestic swine found in different parts of the world. There can be little doubt that, although selective breeding has produced extraordinary differences in outward appearance, iseven among the domestic pigs of our own islands, the origin of the numerous tame races to be sought in the ancestry of the wild breeds of the countries in which they are found. Darwin has some very apposite remarks on the differences to be observed in domesticated swine. " The peculiar form of the skull and body in the most highly cultivated races is," he observes, "not characteristic of any one race, but is common to all when improved up to

Photo ly W. Reid] [Withaic, N.B.

A DOMESTICATED SOW AND HER PROGENY.

The absence of stripes and spots on the young is a feature in which they differ from those of nearly all wild swine. 310

The Pig and Hippopotamus

Photo by Ottomar Amchiitz] {Berlin.

WILD BOAK.

In its long, bristly hair and powerful lower tusks, the wild boar is a very different animal from its domesticated descendants. the same standard. Thus the large-bodied, long-eared English breed, with a convex back, and the small-bodied, short-eared Chinese breeds, with a concave back, when bred to the same state of perfection, nearly resemble each other in the form of the head and body. This result, it appears, is partly due to similar causes of change acting on the several races, and for the greatest amount of partly to man breeding the pig for one sole purpose namely, flesh and fat; so that selection has always tended towards one and the same end. With it has most domestic animals the result of selection has been divergence of character; here been convergence."

THE TRUE PIGS.

True pigs are found only in the Old World, and even there in very widely different forms. Typical of these quadrupeds is the well-known WILD BOAR, found abundantly in many parts of Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and Central Asia. In the British Islands the wild boar its tame descendantsmust once have been extraordinarily plentiful, especially in Ireland, where still so greatly flourish. In the days of the Plantagenets wild swine fed and sheltered in the woodlands close to London. James I. hunted them near Windsor in 1617, and even down to the year 1683 these animals still had their haunts in the more secluded parts of England. Although now extinct in these Islands, the wild boar is to be found plentifully at the present day in France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Spain, Greece, Albania, and other countries of the is shot during forest drives, but inMediterranean. In most parts of Europe the wild boar lie in wait for these animals by thethe Caucasus and round the Black Sea the hardy peasants fruit-trees on autumn nights or waylay them going to the water and shoot them single-handed. Many an old Cossack, writes Mr. Clive Phillipps-Wolley, bears the scars of some desperate encounter with these formidable foes. In Spain, where in the old days the boar was pursued by cavaliers with spear and pike, it is still, in the forests of Estremadura, followed with horse and stillness of a moonlight night, when thehound, usually, says Mr. Abel Chapman, " during the acorns are falling from the oaks in the magnificent Estremenian woods."

Photo by J. Turner-Turner, Eq. DIVING-PIGS. Half-wild pigs, found in Florida, -where they live on refuse fish. (See next page.)

In India the wild boar of Europe and North Africa is replaced by a closely allied species (distinguished by a crest of long black bristles upon the neck and back), which furnishes some of the finest and most exciting sport in the world to mounted hunters armed with a sharp spear. There is not a pluckier or more fearless beast living than the boar; and as he carries long and extremely sharp tusks, and never scruples to use them, he is an exceedingly dangerous opponent when wounded and enraged. Severe and even fatal accidents have happened in the is absolutely reckless ofpursuit of this determined beast of chase. When at bay, the boar life; and although pierced and mortally wounded by the spear, will yet force himself up the shaft, and with his dying effort inflict gaping wounds on the horse bearing his attacker. Indian shikaris, to illustrate the courage of the wild boar, say that he has the hardihood to drink at a river between two tigers; and Colonel K. Heber Percy mentions, in the Badminton volumes on "Big Game Shooting," that "several cases are on record in which an old boar has beaten off a tiger, and some in which the latter has been killed by a boar. The boar's extraordinary activity and sharp tusks make him no mean adversary, and his short neck makes it difficult for a tiger to seize it and give it that fatal wrench with which he likes to polish off his victims." A wild boar will stand as much as 3 feet at the shoulder some sportsmen isaffirm considerably more and weigh more than 300 Ibs. The finest boar's tusk known one mentioned in Eowland Ward's "Kecords of Big Game." This measures 11| inches over the curve. It came from the Caucasus, and is in the possession of Colonel Veernhof.

It is worthy of note that, while the full-grown individuals of the various species of wild swine are uniformly coloured, their young are longitudinally striped and spotted. In India, besides the common boar, a tiny wild swine, known as the PYGMY HOG, is found in the Bhutan Terai and the forests of Nepal and Sikhitn. This pig, which is little bigger than a fox-terrier, runs in considerable troops, or sounders, and is said to attack intruders into its domain much in the same fearless way in which the peccary of America defends its sanctuaries. Ibs.The height of this diminutive species is given as from 8 to 10 inches the weight at 10

The Pig and Hippopotamus 313

Wild swine are nocturnal in their habits, frequenting moist and marshy country, loving the shade of forests, and making their lairs in tall grass, reed-beds, and similar covert. They go far afield for their food-supplies, and do a great deal of damage to crops in cultivated districts. The European wild sow produces from six to ten young, and at least two litters are usually brought forth in the year. It is remarkable how quickly pigs, as well as other domesticated animals, revert to a semi-feral state of existence, and develop habits suited to a fresh environment. Mr. J. Turner-Turner sends us the following interesting note in connection with this trait: "DrviNG- PIGS. These pigs live in an almost wild condition on certain of the islands off Florida, and subsist chiefly upon the refuse fish cast away by the netsmen. To obtain this, the pigs dive under water, walking on the land at Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Panon's drr a depth of 5 feet below the surface." JAVAN WILD PIG.

Among other Asiatic wild swine are to be mentioned One of several nearly allied species inhabiting the Malay the COLLARED PIG, found in Java, Sumatra, and Borneo; Islands. the WHITE-WHISKERED JAPANESE PIG; the PAPUAN and FORMOSAN PIGS; the WARTY PIG of Java and Borneo; the CERAM PIG; the CELEBES PIG; and the BEARDED PIG of Borneo, a species distinguished by a quantity of long hair carried upon the cheeks. In the Andaman Islands a small, shaggy wild pig, standing about 20 inches at the shoulder, is found in the forests. Although distinguished from the well-known wild boar of India by certain peculiarities, there is a strong family resemblance to that well-known species in most of these various Asiatic species and races.

Among the many kinds of domesticated swine found in Asia, perhaps the strangest and most curio as is the JAPANESE MASKED PIG. This animal is described by Darwin as having "an extraordinary appearance, from its short head, broad forehead and nose, great fleshy ears, and deeply furrowed skin. Not only is the face furrowed, but thick folds of skin, which are harder than the other parts, almost like the plates on the Indian rhinoceros, hang about the shoulders and rump. It is coloured black, with white feet, and breeds true. That it has long been domesticated there can be little doubt; and this might have been inferred even from the circumstance that its young are not longitudinally striped." In Africa, besides the European wild boar, which there extends its range to Algeria and Morocco, a little-known wild pig is the SENAAR BOAR, found in Senaar, Kordofan, and the Soudan Dr. late In the Gray's [Parson's Green. region. Co.] Photo by Scholastic Photo. " " this of Carnivora Catalogue MALE AND FEMALE BABIRUSA. The chief characteristic of this pig is the peculiar and enormous development of the tusks in wild pig is described as having the male, the upper pair of which grow through the lips and curve backwards. the fur dense and bristly, and 40