Hobnail

“ Meanwhile the warmth-loving hippopotamuses, the hog’s nearest relations, with huge grinding teeth behind, sharp front teeth, and tusks within their lips, took to a water-life in the Old World.164 When we look at their immensely powerful bodies, and their short stout legs with four strong hoof-covered toes, and learn how rapidly they can gallop on land, and how furiously they charge an enemy in the water, snapping their great jaws which will kill a large animal at one crunch, we do not wonder that they can hold their own, especially as they always live in herds. ”

“ The marginal flowers of the flat-topped clusters of the hobble-bush, like those of the hydrangea, are much larger than the 49inner ones, and are without either stamens or pistils; their only part in the economy of the shrub being to form an attractive setting for the cluster, and thus to allure the insect-visitors that are usually so necessary to the future well-being of the species. The shrub is a common one in our northern woods and mountains. ”

“ Nature designed the hog to fulfil many important functions in a forest country. By his burrowing after roots and such like, he turns up and destroys the larvæ of innumerable insects that would otherwise injure the trees as well as their fruit. He destroys the slug, snail, snake, and adder, and thus not only rids the forest of these injurious and unpleasant inhabitants, but also makes them subservient to his own nourishment, and thus to the benefit of mankind. ”

“ Indeed an old hunter once saw a panther spring from a tree into a drove of wood hogs, and scarcely had he touched the ground than the larger ones fell upon him with their tusks and the weight of their bodies, and killed and tore him in pieces in a few moments. ”

“ I warily neared the heaving mountain of flesh, uncertain of the dynamite's power, but calculating that two detonations near the creature's head would be enough.
Opening his one good eye, the Hog looked at me. His tusks grated together. Weak noises came from his mouth. "Uhdoo nuut keel!"
Sixday evening, I had been momentarily convinced that the Hog could speak, but had found it hard to accept that faculty in a swinish animal without grasping organs. However, appearance did not always indicate intellectual ability, and the Hog's skull contained ample space for a large brain. ”

“ Ever the melancholy hobo climbed down and up the steep bank, and ever the coon called for more. He drank more water than all the rest of us put together. The twilight deepened into night, the stars came out, and he still drank on. I do believe that if the whistle of the freight hadn't sounded, he'd be there yet, swilling water and revenge while the melancholy hobo toiled down and up. ”

“ The ground hog’s call is a clear, distinct whistle, not greatly unlike the singing of a canary bird, only much louder and even sweeter in tone. It is interesting to observe a full-grown ground hog, weighing several pounds, emitting a melodious warble that might well belong to a feathered songster. ”

“ No one who lives in the country is ignorant of the profits arising from the hog; his flesh sells for more than that of the ox, and his lard for nearly double; the blood, intestines, feet, and tongue, are all prepared and used as food. The dung of the hog is colder than that of other animals, and should not be used for any but hot and dry lands. The fat of the intestines and web, which differs from the common lard, is employed for greasing wheels, and many other purposes. ”

“ By this fertility, as well as by the formation of the ovary of the female, it even seems to form the extremity of the viviparous species, and to approach the oviparous. In short, the hog seems to be of an equivocal nature, or rather appears so to those who suppose the hypothetical order of their ideas to be the same as the common order of Nature, and who only perceive, in the infinite chain of beings, some apparent points to which they would refer every natural occurrence. ”

“ As roots and fruits buried in the earth form the natural food of the hog, his face terminates in a strong muscular snout, insensible at the extremity, and perfectly adapted for turning up the soil. There is a large plexus of nerves proceeding down each side of the nose, and ramifying over the nostril, and in these doubtless reside that peculiar power which enables the hog to detect his food though buried some inches below the surface of the ground. ”

“ When this country was first settled the hogs were probably brought from the East, and were white. Would wallowing in the black mud and water for weeks and months during the hot summer season gradually change the color of their hair to correspond to that of the soil in which they spend so much of their time? This question must be left to the evolutionists, who have explained, to their own satisfaction at least, so many questions of a like nature. ”

“ Hedge-hogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat their roots of the plantain in my grass-walks is very curious: with their upper mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed; but they deface the waffles in some measure by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food. ”

“ To this the Professor adds:"I have met with some satisfactory instances of the association of fossil remains of a species of hog with those of the mammoth, in the newer pliocene fresh-water formations of England."
The most usual situations however, in which the fossilized bones of the hog are met with, are in peat-bogs, often at the depth of many feet, and in association with the remains of the wolf, the beaver, the roebuck, and a gigantic red-deer; generally they underline the bed of peat, and rest on shell-marl or alluvium. ”

“ My goats, secure from harm, small tendance need,
While high, on yonder hanging rock, they feed; 4
And, here below, the banky shore along,
Your heifers graze. Now, then, to strive in song
Prepare. As eldest, Hobbinol begin;
And Lanquet's rival-verse, by turns, come in. 8
HOBBINOL.
Let others stake what chosen pledge they will,
Or kid, or lamb, or mazer wrought with skill:
For praise we sing, nor wager ought beside ”

“ They seldom quit their coverts during the day, but prowl about in search of food during twilight and the night. Their acute sense of smell enables them to detect the presence of roots or fruits deeply imbedded in the soil, and they often do considerable mischief by ploughing up the ground in search of them, particularly as they do not, like the common hog, root up a little spot here and there, but plough long continuous furrows. ”

“ The leg is the least profitable portion of the hog, and we therefore require no more of it than is absolutely necessary for the support of the rest." Let any one compare the wild-boar with any improved breed, and he will see how effectually the legs have been shortened. ”

“ Skin, yellowish-green, but for the most part covered with beautiful crimson, which, on the side next the sun, is of a deep purple, approaching to black. Eye, closed, with long green segments, set in a shallow, ribbed, and plaited basin, round which are eight or ten prominent ribs, which extend down the sides even to the stalk, which render the form of the fruit very irregular. Stalk, thick, and often very fleshy, an inch to an inch and a half long, inserted in a deep, wide, and russety cavity. Flesh, white, tender, juicy, tinged with pink, of a rich, sugary, and raspberry flavor. ”

“ They begin with the coarsest side, keeping time with their strokes in the same manner as smiths, and continue until the cloth, which extends rapidly under these strokes, shows by the too great thinness of the groves which are made in it that a finer side of the beater is requisite. In this manner they proceed to the finest side, with which they finish; unless the cloth is to be of that very fine sort hoboo, which is almost as thin as muslin. ”

“ Hob, having received a lump of oatcake and a draught of very small ale, limped out of the court, and, so soon as he could find a convenient spot behind the gorse bushes, divested himself of his bandages, and changed the side of his shepherd’s plaid to one much older and more weather-beaten; also his pilgrim’s hat for one in his pouch—a blue bonnet, more like the national Scottish head-gear, hiding the hat in the gorse. ”

“ By veterinarians who employ the old method of casting with four hobbles, the animal, being properly prepared, is thrown upon whichever side corresponds with the operator’s habit of manipulation, whether with the right hand or the left, and the leg opposite to that on which he is lying being released from the hobble, is carried forward upon the corresponding shoulder, as far as it can be safely done. ”

“ As the Tinkling roosts in society, so does it build. The nests, to the number of twenty or thirty, are placed in a single tree, usually a hog-plum, (Spondias graveolens) . One of these trees, chosen every year as a nesting tree, being on the property of a friend, a nest, one of fourteen then built, was brought down for my inspection. It consists of a deep, compact, and well-formed cup, the hollow of which is as large as a pint basin; the sides, about an inch and a half thick, formed of flexible stems of weeds, and stalks of guinea grass. ”

“ It is superfluous to say that the common hog of our farmyards has been propagated until an almost countless variety of breeds have been produced—not only every country, but even single counties or provinces having a breed of its own. ”

“ If the farmer or any of his servants had spoken disrespectfully of the hobthrush, they would presently find cream-pans smashed to atoms, horses and cattle turned loose and driven into the woods, and the housewife’s churning would produce no butter. Sometimes the Hob or Dobby (Yks. Lan.) is famous only for whimsical pranks of this nature. The popular story of the goblin who was so troublesome that the farmer and his family packed up their goods and quitted the house, only to find that they were carrying the goblin too amongst the household stuff, is also told of the north-country Hob. ”

“ When talking, the Ground Hog rested by the edge of his burrow, sitting on his haunches, and waving his queer little forepaws whenever he told anything especially important. And this was the story:
"Perhaps you may have heard me speak of my grandfather. Ah, he was a Ground Hog worth seeing! He was large, and, although when I knew him the black fur on his back was streaked with gray, he was still handsome. He was clever, too. I have often heard my father say that he could dig the deepest and best burrow in the forest. ”

“ After a lamb has been weaned, until the first fleece is shorn from its back, it receives the name of hogg, which is also modified according to the sex and state of the animal, a female being a ewe-hogg, a male a tup-hogg, and a castrated male a wether-hogg. After the first fleece has been shorn, another change is made in the nomenclature; the ewe-hogg then becomes a gimmer, the tup-hogg a shearling-tup, and the wether-hog a dinmont, and these names are retained until the fleece is shorn a second time. ”

“ It is a very elegant and ornamental species, its blossoms being beautifully coloured, the upper sides of the leaves glossy green, sometimes transversely wrinkled, the underside and the branches thickly covered with a ferruginous tomentum. ”

“ He hovers over meadows, cornfields; over the tops of the highest downs, sometimes at the very edge of a precipice or above a chalk quarry; over gardens, waste ground; over the highway; over summer and other ricks and thatched sheds, from which he sometimes takes his prey; over stables, where mice abound. He has no preference for one side of a hedge or grove, and cares not the least on which the wind blows. His hovering is entirely determined by his judgment as to the chance of prey. I have seen a kestrel hover over every variety of dry ground that is to be found. ”

“ It has thick, coarse whiskers, a narrow mouth, and no tusks. The front hoofs are divided into four parts, and the back ones into three, and these divisions or toes are connected together by skin, and thus in a manner webbed, and adapted for swimming; indeed so much does it delight in the water that by some it has been called the water-hog. It lives upon fruit, corn, and sugar-canes, and eats all the fish it can catch. ”

“ They grow and increase in this manner with but little attention or care. The hogs find their food in the woods the greater part of the year, and in the fall they fatten upon the nuts or "mast." The oak, hickory, beech, and other trees that abound in these extensive forests afford vast quantities of these nuts, which these people claim for their own hogs, whoever may own the land. ”

“ Put hogs into a pasture containing all the tame grasses, with one corner in crab grass, and the last named grass will all be consumed before the other grasses are touched.
Not only do they prefer it to any other grass, but on no grass will they thrive and fatten so well. Last spring I fenced twelve acres of old stalk ground well seeded to crab grass. With the first of June the field was green, and from then until frost pastured sixty large hogs, which, with one ear of corn each, morning and evening, became thoroughly fat. ”

“ This cold weather coming on marks the time for hog killing, and some of the porkers have been running in the woods, fattening on the mast. There is an old mother hog that has gotten quite wild, and has a litter of young ones with her that are hard to catch. ”

“ Its harsh [Pg 299] cry resembles the grunt of the hog, and forms a striking contrast to its beautiful plumage. Numberless fly-catchers and shrikes (Muscicapidæ and Laniadæ) hover on tree and bush, watching for the passing insects, which they snatch up with extraordinary dexterity. Finches twitter on the summits of the loftiest trees beyond the reach of the hunter's shot: they are distinguished, like the Ampelidæ, who, however, live amongst the lower bushes, by the lively and almost dazzling colors of their feathers. ”