Among the animals of the New World, few species are more numerous, or
more remarkable, than that of the Mexican Hog.[V] (_fig. 116._) At the
first glance he resembles our wild boar, or rather the hog of Siam,
which, as we have already observed, is nothing more than a variety of
the wild boar; and for which reason this has been called the American
wild boar, or American hog. He is, however, of a distinct species,
and refuses to engender either with our wild or domestic kinds; a
circumstance of which I was convinced, by having reared one of these
animals in company with several sows.
[Footnote V: This animal has a variety of names; besides the above,
some call him _Tajassou_, _Tajacou_, _Paquira_, _Saino_, &c.]
He differs also from the hog in a number of characteristics, both
external and internal. He is less corpulent, and his legs are shorter;
in the stomach and intestines, there is a difference of conformation.
He has no tail, and his bristles are much stronger than those of the
wild boar; and, lastly, he has on his back, near the crupper, an
opening from which there is discharged an ichorous humor of a very
disagreeable smell. This is the only animal which has an opening in
this part of the body. In the civets, the badger, and the genet,
the reservoir for their perfume is situated beneath the parts of
generation; and in the musk-animal, and the musk-rat of Canada, we
find it under the belly. The moisture which exudes from this aperture
in the back of the Mexican hog, is secreted by large glands, which
M. Daubenton has described with much attention, as well as the other
singularities of this animal; Dr. Tyson also in the Philosophical
Transactions, No. 153, has given a good description of it. Without
minutely detailing the observations of these two able anatomists, I
shall barely remark, that the latter was mistaken in asserting that
this animal has three stomachs, or, as Mr. Ray says, a gizzard and
two stomachs. M. Daubenton plainly shews, that it is only one stomach
divided by two similar pouches, which give it the appearance of three;
that only one of these pouches has a pyrolus, or orifice below, for
the discharge of its contents; that, consequently, we ought to consider
the two others merely as appendages to, or rather portions of, the same
stomach.
The Mexican hog might be rendered a domestic animal like the common
kind; he has nearly the same habits and natural inclinations; feeds
upon the same aliments, and his flesh, though more dry and lean, is not
unpalatable, and may be improved by castration. When killed, not only
the parts of generation, if the flesh is intended to be eaten, (as is
also done with the wild boar) must be taken instantly away, but also
the glands at the opening in the back, and which are common to both
male and female, must likewise be removed, for if this operation be
deferred for only half an hour, the flesh becomes utterly unfit to be
eaten.
These animals are extremely numerous in all the warm climates of South
America. They go in herds of two or three hundred together, and unite,
like hogs, in the defence of each other. They are particularly fierce
when their young are attempted to be taken from them. They surround
their plunderers, attack them without fear, and frequently make their
lives pay the forfeit of their rashness. In their native country they
prefer the mountainous parts to the low and level grounds; neither do
they seek marshes nor mud, like our hogs, but remain in the forests,
where they subsist upon wild fruits, roots, and vegetables; they are an
unceasing enemy to all the serpent kinds, with which the uncultivated
forests of the New Continent abound: as soon as they perceive a serpent
or viper, they seize it with their fore hoofs, skin it in an instant,
and devour the flesh.
These animals are very prolific; the young ones follow the dam, and do
not separate from her till they are full grown. If taken young they
are very easily tamed, and soon lose all their natural ferocity, but
they never shew any signs of docility, but continue stupid, without
attachment, or even seeming to know the hand that feeds them. They do
no mischief, and may be permitted to run tame, without apprehending
any dangerous consequence. They seldom stray far from home, but return
of themselves to the sty: they never quarrel among each other, except
when they are fed in the same trough. At such times they have an angry
grunt, much stronger and harsher than that of a common hog; but they
seldom scream, only when suddenly surprised, or frightened, when they
have a shrill manner of blowing like the wild boar. When enraged they
draw their breath with great force, and point their bristles upward
which more resemble the sharp armour of the hedge-hog than the bristles
of the wild boar.
The species of the Mexican hog is preserved without alteration, and
altogether unmixed with that of the European hog, which has been
transported to, and become wild in, the forests of America. These
animals meet in the woods, and even herd together, and yet never
produce an intermediate breed. It is the same with the Guinea hog,
which has greatly multiplied in America, after being brought thither
from Africa.
However approximate the species of the European hog, the Guinea-hog,
and the peccari, may appear, it is, nevertheless, evident, that they
are each distinct, and separate from the others since they inhabit the
same climate without intermixture. Of the three, the strongest, most
robust, and most formidable, is our wild boar. The peccari, though
equally fierce, is yet less active, and inferior as to the engines of
defence, his tusks being much shorter. This animal dreads the cold, and
cannot subsist, without shelter, even in our temperate regions; nor can
our wild boar exist in countries which are very cold; therefore it is
impossible that either of them could have found a passage from the one
continent to the other, over any northern country; and therefore the
Mexican hog cannot be considered as an European hog degenerated, or
changed, by the climate of America, but as an animal peculiar to the
southern regions of that continent.
Ray and other naturalists, have maintained, that the humor discharged
from the back of the Mexican hog is a kind of musk, an agreeable
perfume, even as it exudes from the body of the animal; that it is
perceived at a considerable distance, and perfumes every place he
inhabits, and through which he passes. I have, I must own, a thousand
times experienced very contrary effects; for so disagreeable is the
smell of this moisture, on being separated from the body of the animal,
that I could not collect it without being exceedingly incommoded. It
becomes less foetid by being dried in the air, but never acquires
the agreeable smell of musk, or of civet; and naturalists would have
expressed themselves with more propriety, if they had compared it to
that of _castoreum_.