Kim Gordon Poole, age 10, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

What kind of animal is the javelina?

The word "javelina" takes us back to the early settlers who followed Columbus to the New World. Spanish explorers probed north from Mexico and settled in southern North America. Many places in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico kept their early Spanish names and the people kept many Spanish words. This lingering chapter of New World history gave us the word "javelina."

In the Spanish language of the Old World, the sow of the wild boar was known as a "jabalina." The Conquistadores who explored the New World discovered herds of animals that appeared to be first cousins of the wild boars they had known at home. It seemed natural to call the females jabalinas. The Spanish also adopted the America Indian word for this native animal and changed it to "pecari." English speaking settlers arrived and later found that the same animal already had two names. Most of them chose "pecari" but changed it to "peccary." In Texas, where the Spanish influence was very strong, the name "jabalina" was adopted and then changed over the years to the javelina in today's question.

Scientists later had a closer look at the peccary, alias the javelina. They agreed that indeed he is a first cousin of the assorted pigs and wild boars of the Old World. But, strictly speaking, he cannot be classified as one of them. Pigs and peccaries are enough alike to be classified in the even toed Artiodactyla Order, along with the even toed camels and cattle, deer and antelope. But the true pigs are classified in their own family, Suidae. Because of slight biological differences, the peccaries merit their own family, Tayassuidae.

    The native New World resembles a smallish wild pig and he roams the wilds with herds of his friends and relatives. He loves to root in the ground in true pig like style and he eats almost any food he finds, meat or vegetable. He is especially fond of roots, grain and berries. But the peccary has a strong and unusual odor all his own. It comes from an oily musk gland on his back, about eight inches above his tail. He also has one less hind toe than a true pig and he never grows the outland¬ish tusks of certain Old World wild boars. These biological differences explain why zoologists classify the two pig like peccaries of the New World in a family of their own.

The smaller peccary roams in large herds through forested regions from Mexico south to Paraguay. The larger peccary ranges as far north as Texas. There he uses his old Spanish name of javelina. The javelinas alias the colored peccary, alias the musk pig, is about three feet long, plus a small, stringy tail. He stands about two feet high at shoulder level and tips the scales at around 45 to 50 pounds. He roams among the cactus and scrub of the prairies with a herd of a dozen or so friends and relatives. As a rule, he prefers to avoid serious warfare. But when cornered, he defends himself with fierce courage.

The javelina's live and let live philosophy does not apply to rattlesnakes. He cannot abide these snakes armed with venomous fangs. He faces a rattler with bristles high and jerks his head to coax the snake to attack. Then he bunches his four little trotters close together, leaps high in the air and pounces down again and again. His aim is deadly accurate and his sharp hooves soon slice the rattler to ribbons.