Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-26
OUR AMERICAN BOARS
Hundreds Of Wild Pigs in
New Hampshire Forests.
THEIR PECULIARITIES
SOME ARE YOUNG AND OTHERS
ARE BIG GRAY MONSTERS.
Never Mind the Sight Of an Enemy
Till He Can Be
saeat.o

Written for The Evening Star.
We usually think of wild boars in connec-
ton with the East Indian sport of pig
sticking" in which the hunters ride after
the wild pigs on horseback and kill them
by driving spear down between the shout
der blades; or in connection with the Ger
man boar hunts, in which even the Emperor
William is fond. of taking part, and in
which the boars are hunted with dogs, bred
for the purpose. ISome years ago. however,
the late Mr.. Austin Corbin imported from
Germany number of wild young pigs, and
liberated them in the Blue mountain forest.
his great game preserve near Newport N.
H. The conditions proved favorable to their
increase. and now there are hundreds of
these interesting creatures living in the
dense woods of this great Enclosure Some
times in the very early morning see a boar
running across the open ground in front of
my house, on his way back to the woodland,
but 1t is rare sight, for of all the animals
hereabOuts the bears are the wariest At
night only do they make practice of leav-
ing the cover of the trees; they have learned
that In darkness there is absolute safety,
while in the daylight stalk death and de-
strucuon. Since the LIST of September many
hunters have come here with the hope of
carrying nome a fine boar'S head, and
skilled guides have used all their ingenuity
u,
single large boar has been bagged this sea-
son. Some sows and few medium-sized
boars have been shot, but the big fellows
are all here yet.
Easy to Find Them.
Signs of boar are to be seen often
enough, however. and one cannot walk for
half an hour in the Blue mountain forest
without seeing them. The commonest evil
dence of the presence of these creatures Is
seen in the patches of ground where the
boars have uprooted the turf while seeking
for their food of roots. In many cases
these places look as though they have been
plOughed, and when one takes note of the
stones and even small bushes which have
been displaced one wonders what sort of
material the shouts of wild bOars are made
Of Then their tracks are to be seen every
where where the ground is soft. They
look somewhat like the tracks of deer, but
are not so sharp in front. and the marks of
the dew claws are set wider apart than
are those of deer Other evidence of
their presence is found in the woods,
where they make for themselves nests Of
evergreen branches. Not only may We find
been broken off, but the nests themselves.
usually in closely grown thicket of ever
greens, or under the low-sweeping branches
of spruce or pine.
Getting Ready for Winter.
One cold evening week or two ago I
had the pleasure of watching a number of
wild bOars making their winter nests 1t
was just about shutdown, and was walk
ing along the western slope Of Croydon
mountain. not far from the summit. when
heard the grunt of a boar. It was not a
grunt Of alarm, but was rather of con-
versatfonal nature. and as the wind was
blowing toward me from the direction Of
the sound, I approached to see what was
going on. Crawling into shadow of a fallen
tree, looked over the trunk into little
clearing, and there I saw about twenty
wild bOars of different sizes busy gather
ing material for their nests. Some were
young-nOt more THAN two or three years
old-but others were big gray monsters,
with long white tuskseTwith which they
mention man, fnom end to end. l saw
one huge pig, whether a boar or SOW l
could not determines force its way In
among the low branches of spruce tree.
She then seized one of the branches close
to the trunk, twisted IL OF with her teeth.
and retired into the underground to place
1t on an already large heap OF boughs.
Presently one of the little pigs, which had
Just broken OF the top of small spruce
sapling. came trOtting In my direction He
passed quite close to- where l stood, but
failed to notice my presence until ne had
gone round behind me. Then. as he caught
my wind. he stopped as II he had been
shot. .Whoof!" said he, as though the
odor of man was fthe Filess on earth to
MIN, ana lneH. WltH low, EoiiAs II uni, iic
warned all the other bears of the hateful
presence. They took the hint and were
tearing away through the bushes, even be-
fore the youngster who gave the warning
had started back over his, own trail.
His Little Ways.
This is one of the peculiarities of the
boar as have seen him; his eyes tell him
comparatively little and he will go along
with his business with an enemy In fuil
sight as long as he receives no warning
through his nose: but let the wind change
but for single instant, and that same
boar will grunt and run as though the
devil is at his heels. Not that these WIG
pigs are unable to fight or that they are
cowardly: boar wounded or cornered IS
deadly antagonist: and sow when she
has Hitter of pigs. will fight with her
last breath In their defense, and could
surely tear An unarmed man to pieces with
her teeth ! once saw an old hunter who
was dressing a deer al nightfaii drop MS
IA in a