82 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

and very powerful animal, armed with long and sharp tusks,
capable of inflicting most dangerous wounds. The colour
’ of the wild boar is a dark brindled grey, though when quite
young it is marked by alternate dusky and pale bands ; the
snout is longer in proportion than in the domestic species,
but the chief characteristic difference is the length of the
tusks, The female is timid and inoffensive, but evinces the
most determined courage if her young are in danger, and
defends them with great fierceness. The wild boar was
formerly a frequent inhabitant of our forests, affording an
exciting though dangerous amusement to the lovers of
the chase. By a forest law of William the Conqueror it
was enacted, that any persons found guilty of killing a wild
boar (excepting, of course, the privileged few), should lose
their eyes; a law worthy of the barbarous times in which it
was enacted. .

The “swine” of Leviticus xi., in all probability, bore a
much greater resemblance to the wild boar than to our
quiet domestic animals. Their flesh was prohibited by.
Moses as food: ‘The swine, though he divide the hoof,
and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud: he is
unclean to you.” This interdiction is by no means pecu-
liar to the Hebrews: the Egyptians, Arabs, and Pheni-