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being in colour dull olive-black, varied with yellow. Possibly this little-known swine may prove to be merely a sub-species Africa. Nowof the common wild boar of Europe and North that the Soudan regions have once more been opened up to Europeans, we may expect shortly to hear more of this wild swine, as well as of other rare and interesting animals.

Still dealing with the true pigs, we come now to the BUSH-PIGS of Africa and Madagascar. These differ somewhat from the typical wild boars of Europe and India in the structure of the teeth, the long pencilled ear-tufts, the elongated snout, and other characteristics. The tusks are considerably smaller, and seldom exceed 6 or 7 inches in islength. The BED EIVEE-HOG, or WEST AFRICAN BUSH-PIG, decidedly the most striking of this group. Smaller than the bush-pig of South Africa, and- seldom exceeding 2 feet in height at the shoulder, the colour of this animal is a brilliant reddish brown, with tints of yellow. Noticeable Photo by Miss E. J. Beck. WART-HOG. streaks of white are found round the eyes and on the cheeks. The ear-tufts, forehead, and limbs are blackish; more white Shows the great sizetheof body.the head in proportion to markings are seen at the tips of the ear-tufts, along the thick mane, and round the margins of the ears. The under-parts are whitish grey in colour. This very handsome pig runs in considerable herds, and is found chiefly in forest and jungle near the banks of the various rivers in West Africa. Its range extends from Angola to Senegambia, and eastwards into the continent as far as Monbuttu.

The well-known BUSH-PIG OF SOUTH AFRICA, the BOSCH-VARK of the Boers, is a fine species, having a wide range over much of the southern and south-eastern parts of the continent, extending as far north as Central Africa. In the Eastern Transvaal and Swaziland these animals attain their greatest size, an adult boar standing from 2 feet 4 inches to 2 feet 7 inches in Ibs. The usual colour is brownish red, the height, and weighing as much as from 150 to 170 face and mane greyish; but in different specimens and at different ages great variations are to be noticed. Pale greyish brown or mottled brown are colours often to be found. These bush-pigs are formidable-looking creatures, with thick bristling manes, small deep-set eyes, and sharp if somewhat short tusks, which they know well how to use. Among the old-fashioned Boers cured hams from these animals were, when they were more plentiful in Cape Colony, often to be found in up-country farmhouses. The bosch-vark is a beast of shy, nocturnal habit, and, loving as it does the shade and protection of dense covert and bush, is, unless carefully sought for, not often seen by sportsmen. The herds range usually from half a dozen to

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] i's Green. as many as twenty in number. S WART-HOG. When once encountered and Displays the broad muzzle and huge tusks, which are nearly as large in the sows as in the boars. set up at bay, this wild swine

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will be found a most tough and courageous adversary, capable and willing to defend itself " stoutly against all foes. They are," says Mr. F. Vaughan Kirby, who has had much experience in hunting these animals, "expert swimmers and swift of foot, and can get over the roughest ground at a great pace. There is no pluckier beast in Africa than a bush-pig, and even a leopard will hesitate before attacking a full-grown boar. Like all wild creatures, they have an instinctive dread of man, and will always make their escape from him if possible; but if surrounded or wounded and brought to bay, they appear to accept the situation with stolid imperturbability, and die fighting with rare pluck, against all odds, grim and silent to the last.... Face to face in the middle of a 'fast' bush, and only a Swazi ' stabbing-assegai ' with which to kill him,... I have seen an old boar, after receiving nine thrusts from those terrible weapons, two of which were still fast in him, make a charge that scattered us like chaff, and in three consecutive lunges lame one of our number for life, and disembowel two of the finest ' pig-dogs ' I ever hunted with. In such encounters a boar inflicts terrible wounds with his teeth, as well as with his tusks." Few men care to face a wart-hog on foot. is Another bush-pig found in Madagascar, and is known as EDWARDS' BUSH-PIG. Its habits are very similar to those of its brethren in the neighbouring continent of Africa.

THE BABIRUSA.

Quitting the true pigs, we come now to perhaps the very strangest and most singular of all the great tribe of swine. This is the BABIRUSA, that curious and grotesque creature found in the island of Celebes, in the Malay Archipelago. The name Babirusa signifies pig- Photo ly Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green. deer. It is 01 course a HEAD OF MALE WART-HOG. misnomer, and tne animal profiie showing the large conical warty growths on the side of the face so characteristic of has no kinship whatever with these animals, the cervine race. The babirusa is a wild swine, having a dark slate-grey skin, very sparsely covered with hair along the ridge of the spine. This skin is very extraordinarily wrinkled. The ears are much is short,smaller than is the case with other members of the swine group, while the tail straight, and lacks any semblance of tuft. The females have small tusks. In the boars the tusks are most singularly and abnormally developed. From the upper jaw, instead of curving from the side of the lips, the tusks grow from the centre of the muzzle, penetrate right through the skin, and curve backwards often till they touch the forehead. The lower tusks have also a strong curve, but are not so long as those of the upper jaw. Although thus superabundantly provided with tushes, the babirusa is, as regards the rest of its teeth, less well off, having only thirty-four, as against the forty-four of the European wild boar. In their habits these singular pigs much resemble other wild swine, going in herds and frequenting forest, jungle, and the banks of rivers. They are excellent swimmers. The young are, unlike other wild swine in the infant state, unstriped. These animals are often found domesticated about the dwellings of native chiefs in Celebes. The weight of a good male is as much as 128 Ibs.; height at shoulder, 27 inches. The longest tusk recorded measures 17 inches

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over the curve. These animals are driven into nets and speared by the natives of Celebes, and afford excellent sport, the boars especially charging viciously at their assailants.

THE WART-HOGS.

If the babirusa of the Malay Archipelago is a sufficiently bizarre-looking creature, the wart-hog of Africa yields to none of the wild pigs in sheer, downright hideousness of aspect. The WART-HOG OF SOUTH AFRICA, the VLAKTE-VARK (Pig of the Plains) of the Boers, has long been familiar to hunters and naturalists. 30 inches some Standing [Regent's Park. Photo ly If. P. Dando] in swine this wild height, COLLARED PECCARY. Peccaries are the New World representatives of the Swine, and are characterised by a large gland on is distinguished by the the back. disproportionate size of the head, extreme length, breadth, and flatness of the front of the face and muzzle, smallish ears, huge tusks, and the strange wart-like protuberances from which it takes its name. Three of these wen-like growths are found on each side of the face. The tusks of the upper jaw, unlike the teeth of the true pigs, are much larger than those protruding from the lower jaw. The lower tusks seldom exceed 6 inches in length; those of the upper jaw occasionally reach as much as 20 inches over the curve. A pair from North-east Africa (Annesley Bay, on the Abyssinian littoral) measure respectively 27 and 26 inches truly gigantic trophies. The skin of this wild hog is nearly naked, except upon the neck and back, where a long, coarse main of dark bristly hair is to be observed. Wart-hogs, as their Dutch name implies, in the days when game was plentiful, were often found in open country, on the broad grass-plains and karroos. At the present day they are less often seen in the open. They run in small family parties, usually two or three sows and their litters. The old boars, throughout a great part of the year, prefer a more solitary existence. These animals, when pursued, usually betake themselves to an open earth, not of their own making, and, slewing round sharply just as they enter, make their way in hind end first. They afford no great sport to the hunter, and are usually secured with a rifle-bullet. The flesh is fairly good eating, especially that of a young and tender specimen. Speaking generally, wart-hogs are nothing like such fierce and determined opponents as the wild boars of Europe and India, or even the bush-pig. They will, however, charge occasionally, and have been known to attack and rip up a horse. A northern species ^ELIAN'S WART-HOG is found in Abyssinia, Somaliland, and other parts of East Africa, where especially in Abyssinia it roams the mountains and their vicinity, occasionally to a height of 9,000 or 10,000 feet. There is little difference between this and the southern form. Wart-hogs produce usually three or four young, and the sow makes her litter in a disused burrow. Unlike those of the majority of wild swine, the young of the wart-hog are uniformly coloured, having no white stripes or spots.

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THE PECCARIES.

Peculiar to the American Continent, the PECCARIES differ considerably from the wild swine of the Old World. They are of small size; the dentition is not the same, the stomach is more complicated in structure, and the hind feet have three instead of four toes. In general appearance peccaries are not unlike small dark-coloured pig, well covered with bristles, and having, as well as a prominent mane, a deep fringe of hair beneath the throat. They are essentially forest-loving animals, roaming over large tracts of country and making considerable migrations in search of food. Two species have been distinctly identified by naturalists the COLLARED PECCARY, and the WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY. Of these, the former species is found from Texas, in North America, as far south as the Kio Negro, in Patagonia. The habitat of the white-lipped peccary is more circumscribed, and the animal is seldom found except in that part of South and Central America lying between British Honduras and Paraguay. No members of the Pig Family are fiercer or more tenacious of their sanctuaries than the white-lipped peccary, which roams the dense forests of Brazil and Paraguay in large herds. A little creatures, would indeedhuman being, attacked and surrounded by a herd of these savage stand but a poor chance of his life, and many a hunter and traveller has been compelled to seek refuge in a tree and sustain some hours of siege. Of the two species, the white-lipped peccary is somewhat the larger, standing from 15 to 17 inches in height. The collared is not in muchpeccary averages from 13| to 15^ inches. The flesh of these wild swine repute, and unless the back-gland is at once cut out a freshly killed specimen will become fiercequickly spoiled as a human food-supply. Young peccaries appear to be easily tamed, as is their nature in the wild state. In contrast with the abundant litters of other pigs, wild and domesticated, only one offspring is ordinarily produced at birth. In fighting, the peccary does not rip like the wild boar, but inflicts savage and severe bites.

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