Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
GLIMPSE OF WILD BOAR
DIFFICULTY TO GET SIGHT or
THEM DURING HUNTING SEASON.
Animals Very Fond of Beechnuts-
Their Sight is Not Very Good
in the Daytime.
Written for The Star.

nSlC picuSiit Aioii Tic IsidCh OIcStp YER
many. and liberated in Corbin Park. some
prove that their number was not an UNI
lucky one. They have increased until their
name is legion. in spite of the fact that,
from first to last. hundreds of wild boar
have been shot in the great game preserve,
or shipped alive to other parts of the coun-
try.
In the early autumn before the shooting
begins 1t is not very difficult matter to
get glimpses of these strange, wild pigs as
they leave the woodland In the late after
noon, to root on open hillsides or to visit old
orchards, In the hope of finding fallen APP
pies. They are not particularly wary at
such times, and provided one keeps them
well to the windward of him. 1t is often
possibie to approach quite close without
the animals being aware of his presence.
Their sight, in the daytime at least, is not
very acute. and their hearing is probably
not much better; if it is, then they are not
sounds.
have seen man. with the wind In his
race walk up to within a few yards of a
WHO BOAR feeding In an open orchard about
sundoWn. and knock it over with rifle be-
iore II had the slightest suspicion of his
presence OF course. after the shooting has
peen on Tor week, such thing would
naraiy De possible. as by that time the boar
are On, too and venture into the open as
little as possible during daylight This is
especially true of the old boar: Young ones
may occasionally be caught off their guard.
and shot after sunrise or before S,nsat
but 1t is seldom that an old tusker gives n
hunter chance to do this. If he is shot ut
all, it must be at daybreak. or In the feuy
Hinutes before 1t becames too dark to see
the sights of a rifle ~
Time to Find the Boar.
nul even AFTER the shooting begins it
is possible to see the boar in the woods IL
one knows the time and place to see hin,
Many OF them sleep during the day. in
large shallow nests of evergreen boughs
winch they make for themselves in shell
tereo spots In the forest. If one knows
' Wnere such a nest Is to be found it is
usually only matter of careful stalking
t9 approach near enough to see the fam
lily, or part of it, at home 1t NAV be
an OLD SOW, lying comfortably in hollow
nest beneath the loW-growing branches of
a spruce, and surrounded by her we'll
grown pigs, or it may be huge boar.
whose head, betusked and grim, protrudes
from a pile of spruce boughs which cover
the rest of mis- body. But whichever it is
there is sure to be a rather strong piggy
odor about the place, more noticeable be-
cause the observer has, of course, APP
preached with the nest to the windward of
him.
To see the animals in action at this sea-
son, perhaps there is no better place to
and no better time than Immediately after
shutdown. Then the boar begin to move
about in search of food. and If there are
beechnuts to be had they will surely have
them.
One evening last October I was coming
down a mountain trail shortly after sun
set On both sides there were spruces. but
one side, to my left, the evergreenS eX-
tended but a short distance, giving way to
deciduous trees, among which were many
beeches. Suddenly heard a loud rustling
-unmistakably the sound of animals run
ming over dry leaves, and l thought that
must have disturbed herd of wild boar,
and that they were beating hasty re-
treat through the woods.
Roofing for Beechnuts.
Quickly 1 pushed my way through the
fringe of spruces, in order to get a glimpse
of them before they had quite disappeared,
but to my surprise l saw the wild pigs
coming toward me; they were just enter
ing this part of the woods, not running
away from it, as l had supposed 1 drew
back close to the spruces, to see what
would happen. At once, all the boar, pig
and little, began an active search for
beechnuts, roofing under the falien leaves
with their shouts, many of them grunting
incessantly as though this were quite
necessary to success.
There may have been dozen altogether,
hut | soon found myself giving special at
tention to four-a large SOW and her three
pigs These were all coming straight In
NV direction but the wind was blowing
from them 10 me, and they were far too
busy to raise their heads to see INC. On
they came, keeping pretty close toSetncr;
but the little fellows usually somewhat IN
advance of their mother L waited until
they came within ten yards. and then L
raised one hand and took firm hold OF
spruce branch; old sows have rather
nasty habit of charging If they think their
Young ones are in danger, and l Wlshei 10
be prepared to climb in case the big
mother pig before me should get it into
her head that l was thirsting for the blood
of her infants. ,
But nothing happened, except that the
quartet continued to advance, hard at work
eating beechnuts and quite unaware or my
presence Every now and then me mother
would grunt, and often the little ones
would respond by granting back at her. So
busy We're they that one little fellow came
up to within ten feet of me before he even
sIspected that there was anything wrong.
Then he raised his head and saw me stand
ing there AT any rate, he saw something
which did not look quite right, ana for
several seconds he just stared and stared,
presumably trying to make up his mind
whether what he saw was dangerous or
not Had / moved a muscle he would
have run for his dear life, but did not
even wink, and at last he dropped his
snout to the ground and continued his
search for beechnuts, apparently satisfied
that. whatever l was, l belonged right
there.
There Was Something Wrong.
In the meantime his brethren had con-
tinued to advance, and in less than min
ute one of them was actually within six
feet of where / stood Then, whether he
smelIed me or not 1 cannot tell, but he
raised his little snout and looked squarely
at me as his brother had done. Again l
kept perfectly still, but after watching me
for ten seconds this piglet was sure there
was something wrong and ran OF several
wards In a semicircle Then he stopped and
stood like statuette with his absurd lit
tie tail straight in the air But he no
longer looked at me. On the contrary, his
nose was pointed in quite different drec-
ton; he seemed to be waiting for his nose
and ears to convince him that his sus-
picions were well founded.
AT this moment the old sow raised her
head and saw him standing there. know
she had not seen me, and 1 don't believe
she had scented me- either, but what she
did see apparently convinced her that
things were not as they should be. She
waited for no details but with a low, roll
ing grunt she turned and ran. followed by
her pigs and in another moment all the
boar which had been feeding in that sec