The =Wild Boar= (_Sus scrofa_). On each foot four toes, of which the two hinder are small and do not usually touch the ground. The wild boar agrees in the general conformation of its body with the common domesticated swine. Six incisors in upper and lower jaw; the lower ones forwardly directed. The canines, which are more developed in boars than sows, curve outwards and upwards in both jaws as “tusks.” On each side of each jaw seven tuberculated back teeth completely covered with enamel. Length of the body 5 feet 10 inches; length of tail 1 foot 8 inches. Colour: black and rusty brown. The young ones are white, spotted and striped with dark brown. The wild boar likes damp, swampy, but at the same time thickly overgrown districts, where it remains hidden in the day, only seeking the fields and meadows when it has become dark and quite still. It then chiefly feeds on turnips, carrots, and potatoes, rooting them out of the ground; it also devours leguminous crops and grain, but treads down far more of these plants than it eats. Besides this, it also feeds on acorns, beechnuts, hazel-nuts, and truffles. The wild boar does some service by devouring snails, worms, insect larvæ living in the soil, and also the pupæ of destructive species of caterpillars, which occur in the same situation; also voles. Thick hedges, in order to protect the corn from injury. ORDER: Solidungula (SINGLE-HOOFED MAMMALS), to which the horse and the ass belong, need not be dealt with here; still less the other orders enumerated on p. 23. CLASS II.: =AVES= (BIRDS).