BUSH HOG.
BABIRUSA.
THE WART HOGS (Phacochœrus) constitute the second well-marked group to be considered under the head of the family of Hogs. They range over tropical Africa from Abyssinia to Caffraria. They are remarkable, not only for having enormous tusks, and for the development of a large excrescence, or wart, under each eye, but also for the peculiar construction of their last grinding teeth. These are massive, and composed of prisms of enamel surrounding a central mass of dentine, and embedded in the cement which unites them into one tooth. There is only one pair of upper incisors, and the last molars are the only ones which are not shed in the old animal. The canines are large, recurved, sharp, and project eight or nine inches beyond the lips.
Two species of this peculiar genus occur in Africa. ÆLIAN’S WART HOG[272] is a native of the North of Africa. Its skin is of a reddish colour, sparingly supplied with bristles; the neck and back support a mane, some of the bristles of which attain a considerable length.
THE ETHIOPIAN WART HOG (P. æthiopicus) is a native of the southern portions of Africa, and differs principally from the preceding in the larger size of the warts, and a more peculiarly shaped head. The food of both species of Wart Hogs appears to consist almost entirely of roots.
The Hog family is represented in the New World by the small though formidable animals known as the PECCARIES (Dicotyles), which are not more than about three feet long, and about fifty or sixty pounds in weight. They live in herds, are omnivorous, and are perhaps the most awkward animals to be dealt with by the hunter in the forests of South America. They know no fear, and will attack anything which comes in their way, inflicting frightful wounds with their short, lancet-shaped tusks, which are entirely concealed within their lips. They live in holes and hollow logs, into which they back, one by one, until their abode is full, the last standing as sentinel with his head outside. This habit affords the hunter an easy means of killing them, for if the sentinel be killed outright the next takes his place, after pushing out the dead body, and this may go on until the last of the herd is killed.
