Wild hogs are abundant throughout the archipelago. Deer are found on nearly all of the islands, but there are several noteworthy exceptions, such as Palawan and Cebú. The Filipinos are very fond of hunting deer. Sometimes they run them down with dogs and drive them into nets where they lance them—a most unsportsman-like proceeding. The wealthier Filipinos like to take up their stations at good strategic posts, and then have the country beaten toward them. In this way they sometimes get fifty or more deer in a single drive. I have never been able to see anything very exciting about this method of hunting.
It is very good sport, on occasion, to still-hunt deer. The best deer shooting I have ever had was at what is called the Cogonal Grande in the center of the island of Culion. It is a great circular valley sloping very gradually toward the center. Its higher portions are overgrown with cógon grass which gives the valley its name. Probably it was once the bed of a lake. At all events its center is swampy at the present time and has grown up into a hopeless jungle of pandanus, bamboo grass, etc., through which runs a maze of deer paths. Numerous little cañons lead down from the neighbouring hills to this valley and each of them has forest in it.
In the month of December, when the cógon is dry, if fired it burns toward the centre on all sides until the blaze reaches the wet swampy portion where the vegetation is not dry enough to burn. If dogs are then put into the little stretches of forest which run down the ravines toward the open valley, they almost invariably drive out deer which run straight for the tangle at its centre, necessarily crossing ground which has been burned bare.
As a result one gets hard cross shots but has the advantage of seeing every bullet strike, as the soil is very dry at this season. This makes interesting shooting. One gets game enough to keep the camp in meat and not enough so that he feels like a butcher.
Many hunters go out at night with bull’s-eye lanterns, shine the deer and fire at their eyes. This is not so bad as jacking them from a boat, because a man who hunts on foot necessarily makes a good deal of noise, and they are apt to become alarmed and run away, whereas one can approach in a boat so silently that they do not hear the noise of the paddles or the rippling of the water.
Hunting at night in this way in the Philippines is very interesting. One sees all sorts of nocturnal animals which are never met with by day, and also gets a good opportunity to pick up owls, nighthawks and other birds which are not ordinarily taken except by accident. However, the ordinary hunter is not an ornithologist, and does not care for such opportunities.
Wild hogs are hunted much as are deer. They drive readily. On account of the habit of the old boars of turning and facing dogs when the latter molest them, it is easy to bring them down.
The common people kill wild hogs with spears after the dogs have brought them to bay. This is by no means a safe undertaking, as some of the old boars attain tremendous size, have very formidable tusks and are capable of killing a man in short order if able to come to close quarters with him.
The wild hogs of the Philippines are very cleanly beasts. They take daily baths whenever possible, and often build for themselves beds of clean, fresh brush. They are extremely intelligent animals, and it is therefore very difficult to still-hunt them. In view of their huge bulk and ungainly proportions the absolute silence with which they move through the forests cannot fail to impress one who sees them stealing quietly along. After being disturbed they make plenty of noise as they rush away.
One of the best ways to still-hunt them is to secrete one’s self near a water hole which they frequent for bathing purposes, but their sense of smell is very keen, and if the wind happens to blow in the wrong direction they will not approach the place where a hunter is lying in wait.