ve obtained the
name of thorn-hogs. Some reach an immense size, and they are very
prolific, so that it is impossible to destroy them. The boars are fierce
at a particular season, but never attack unless provoked to do so. But
when driven to bay they are the most dangerous of the boars, on account
of their vast size and weight. They are of a sluggish disposition, and
will not rise from their lairs unless forced to do so.

The next kind is the white hog, which has much the same habits as the
former, except that it is usually found in moist places, near lakes and
rivers, and is often called the marsh-pig. The third kind is perfectly
black, much smaller in size, and very active, affording by far the best
sport, and also the best food when killed. As they are found on the
hills where the ground is somewhat more open, horses can follow freely,
and the chase becomes exciting. By some it is called the hill-hog, from
the locality it frequents. The small tusks of the black boar are used
for many ornamental purposes.

These three species are considered to be the descendants of the various
domestic pigs of the ancients, but the fourth, or grey, is thought to be
the true wild boar. It is seldom seen, but is most common in the
south-western forests, where, from the quantity of fern, it is called
the fern-pig. This kind is believed to represent the true wild boar,
which was extinct, or merged in the domestic hog among the ancients,
except in that neighbourhood where the strain remained.

With wild times, the wild habits have returned, and the grey boar is at
once the most difficult of access, and the most ready to encounter
either dogs or men. Although the first, or thorn-hog, does the most
damage to the agriculturist because of its numbers, and its habit of
haunting the neighbourhood of enclosures, the others are equally
injurious if they chance to enter the cultivated fields.

The three principal kinds of wild sheep are the horned, the thyme, and
the meadow. The thyme sheep are the smallest, and haunt the highest
hills in the south, where, feeding on the sweet herbage of the ridges,
their flesh is said to acquire a flavour of wild thyme. They move in
small flocks of not more than thirty, and are the most difficult to
approach, being far more wary than deer, so continuously are they hunted
by the wood-dogs. The horned are larger, and move in greater numbers; as
many as two hundred are sometimes seen together.

They are found on