Indeed, a dog new to the
business is almost certain to get very badly scarred, and no dog that
hunts steadily can escape without some injury. If it runs in right at
the heads of the animals, the probabilities are that it will get killed;
and, as a rule, even two good-sized hounds cannot kill a peccary,
though it is no larger than either of them. However, a wary, resolute,
hard-biting dog of good size speedily gets accustomed to the chase, and
can kill a peccary single-handed, seizing it from behind and worrying it
to death, or watching its chance and grabbing it by the back of the neck
where it joins the head.
Peccaries have delicately moulded short legs, and their feet are small,
the tracks looking peculiarly dainty in consequence. Hence, they do
not swim well, though they take to the water if necessary. They feed
on roots, prickly pears, nuts, insects, lizards, etc. They usually keep
entirely separate from the droves of half-wild swine that are so often
found in the same neighborhoods; but in one case, on this very ranch
where I was staying a peccary deliberately joined a party of nine pigs
and associated with them.
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