ident illustrating the
instinct of the swinish quadruped; but which to his mind, as well as to
ours, seemed more like a proof of a rational principle possessed by the
animal. The incident he had himself been witness to, and in his own
woodlands. He related it thus:--

"I had strayed into the woods in search of a wild turkey with nothing
but my shot-gun, and having tramped about a good bit, I sat down upon a
log to rest myself. I had not been seated live minutes when I heard a
rustling among the dead leaves in front of me. I thought it might be
deer, and raised my gun; but I was greatly disappointed on seeing some
half dozen of my own hogs make their appearance, rooting as they went
along.

"I paid no more heed to them at the time; but a few minutes after, my
attention was again drawn to them, by seeing them make a sudden rush
across a piece of open ground, as if they were in pursuit of something.

"Sure enough they were. Just before their snouts, I espied the long
shining body of a black snake doing its best to get out of their way.
In this it succeeded, for the next moment I saw it twisting itself up a
pawpaw sapling, until it had reached the top branches, where it remained
looking down at its pursuers.

"The snake may have fancied itself secure at the moment, and so thought
I, at least so far as the hogs were concerned. I had made up my mind to
be its destroyer myself, and was just about to sprinkle it with shot,
when a movement on the part of one of the hogs caused me to hold back
and remain quiet. I need not tell you I was considerably astonished to
see the foremost of these animals seize the sapling in its jaws and jerk
it about in a determined manner, as if with the intention of shaking off
the snake! Of course it did not succeed in this, for the latter was
wound around the branches, and it would have been as easy to have shaken
off the bark.

"As you all know, gentlemen, the pawpaw--not the pawpaw (_Carica
papaya_), but a small tree of the _anonas_ or custard apple tribe,
common in the woods of western America--is one of the softest and most
brittle of our trees, and the hog seemed to have discovered this, for he
suddenly changed his tactics, and instead of shaking at the sapling,
commenced grinding it between his powerful jaws. The others assisted
him, and the tree fell in a few seconds. As soon as the top branches
touched the ground, the whole drove dashed forward at the snake; and in
less than