ve
creatures too, as they can leap fences nearly six feet high. In South
America the sow family is represented by the Peccaries (_Dicotyles_), of
which there are two species, one of which is very abundant in the woods,
and forms a most important article in the diet of the poor Indians.
They, too, can swim across rivers, and although their legs are short,
they can run very fast.

It is chiefly in the warmer parts of the world that the species of this
family are found. They are all distinguished by the middle toes of each
foot being larger than the others, and armed with hoofs,[195] the side
toe or toes being shorter, and scarcely reaching the ground. The nose
terminates in a truncated, tough, grissly disk, which is singularly well
adapted for the purpose of the animals, which all grub in the ground for
their food. In some parts of France it is said that they are trained to
search for truffles.

Having briefly alluded to different species "_de grege porci_," we now
limit ourselves to our immediate subject.

The wild boar, at no very remote period, was found in the extensive
woods which covered great portions of this island. The family of Baird
derives its heraldic crest of a wild boar's head from a grant of David
I., King of Scotland. This monarch was hunting in Aberdeenshire, and
when separated from his attendants, the infuriated pig turned upon him;
one of his people came up and killed it, and in memory of his feat
received from the grateful king the device still borne by the family.
The name of a Scottish parish, and of one of the oldest baronial
families in Scotland--Swinton of Swinton, in Berwickshire--is derived
also from this animal, the first of the Swintons having cleared that
part of the country from the wild swine which then infested it. It is
curious to know that some large fields in the neighbourhood of Swinton
still carry in their names traces of these early occupants. Dr Baird
informed the writer that there are four of these fields so
distinguished:--"Sow-causeway," and "Pikerigg," where the wild swine
used to feed ("pick their food"); "Stab's Cross," where Sir Alan Swinton
with his spear pierced some monarch of the race; and "Alan's Cairn,"
where a heap of stones was raised as a monument of his hardihood. In the
southern part of our island only the nobility and gentry were allowed to
hunt this animal; and in the reign of William the Conqueror any one
convicted of killing a wild boar in any of the royal