In order to enable the Hog family to “root” or turn up the ground, they are provided with a truncated and cylindrical proboscis, or snout, which is capable of considerable movement. The skin is more or less supplied abundantly with hair, and the tail is short, and in some cases merely represented by a tubercle.
The sense of smell in the Hog is very acute, and when its broad snout ploughs up the herbage, not a root, an insect, or a worm, escapes the olfactory sense. Although credited with stupidity, the Hog in its native state is to be styled anything but a dull and lethargic animal, neither is it the filthy animal that domestication has reduced it to. Properly cared for, the Pig is as cleanly in its habits, and as capable of strong attachment, as any other creature.
No animal that is mentioned in the Bible—not even the Dog—is spoken of with more abhorrence than the Pig; and even at the present day a Jew or Mohammedan looks upon this creature with anything but a generous feeling, treating it as something utterly detestable. So great was the horror with which the older Jews regarded the Hog, that they would not even mention it by name, but called it “the abomination.” The origin of the great antipathy which the Jews have always experienced for the Pig appears to be lost in antiquity. In Lev. xi. 7, the Hog is spoken of with other animals as being unclean and unfitted for food, simply because it did not chew the cud, although the hoof was divided. It has, however, been suggested that the Pig was so strictly prohibited by Moses from being eaten, on account of its flesh being supposed in a hot country to cause skin-diseases, and especially the dreaded leprosy; but it is to be doubted whether Moses is to be considered as the originator of the horror with which the Hog has been and still is regarded. It seems probable that this disgust dates from a period of far greater antiquity than that of Moses; and it is certain that the flesh of Swine can be eaten in hot countries without producing any bad effects. It is a matter of considerable wonder, that while Swine are held in such abhorrence, we read of herds being so often kept in Palestine. In the Gospel of St. Matthew (viii. 28–34), we read of a herd of Swine being entered by devils, and which, so possessed, rushed down a hill and were drowned in the sea. Again, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we are told of his becoming a swineherd. Although Pigs were so much disliked, the Jews were evidently well acquainted with their habits, as we read in the Second Epistle of St. Peter (ii. 22), where the apostle refers to the fact of Pigs wallowing in the mire. It is also remarkable that with the exception of one passage in the Bible, the mention of the Hog is confined to those in a domesticated state, this exception being found in Psalm lxxx. 13: “The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.”
The genus Sus, or Hog proper, ranges, in the wild state, over the greater portion of the Old World, through Central and Southern Europe into Central and Southern Asia, and as far to the east and south as New Guinea. It is also met with in the North African forests, in the region north of the Sahara desert. It is conspicuous by its absence from North and South America, Australia, and the cold northern regions of Europe and Asia.
The adult teeth in the True Hogs (genus Sus) are forty-four, of which there are in each jaw three incisors, one canine, four premolars, and three true molars. The canines are very variable in size, being reduced to a minimum under domestication, and arriving at a maximum in the wild males.
THE WILD BOAR[270] inhabits Europe, North Africa, and Hindostan, each country having its own peculiar type or race, which sometimes is so marked as to constitute separate species in the opinion of first-rate naturalists.
The Wild Boar is distinguished by a body generally of a dusky-brown or greyish colour, having a tendency to black, and being diversified with black spots. The canines or tusks in the male are long and powerful, and project beyond the upper lip, the mouth is large, and the elongated head is set on a short neck rising out of a thick and muscular body. The size is variable, an old Wild Boar recorded by Desmarest being five feet nine inches long, while a four-year-old of the more ordinary size measured three feet without the tail. The female is smaller than the male, and with smaller tusks. The hairs of the body are coarse, intermixed with a downy wool. On the neck and shoulders the hairs take the form of bristles, being long enough to assume a kind of mane which the animal is enabled to erect if irritated. The young has the body marked with longitudinal stripes of a reddish colour.
In its habits the Wild Boar is by choice herbivorous, feeding on plants, fruits, and roots; but it will also eat Snakes, Lizards, and various insects, and when pressed by hunger nothing appears to come amiss to its voracious appetite; it is stated that even dead Horses are sometimes called into requisition. The Boar is nocturnal in its habits, rarely leaving the shadow of the woods in the day-time, and coming forth as twilight approaches in search of food, delighting in roots often deeply embedded in the soil, and which its keen sense of smell enables it easily to detect. Much mischief is often done by this animal, which ploughs up the ground in continuous furrows for long distances, and is not content, like the domesticated variety, with ploughing up a spot here and there.
DENTITION OF WILD BOAR.