68 DOMESTIC PIGS. Chap. III. 



CHAPTER III. 



PIGS — CATTLE — SHEEP — GOATS. 



PIGS BELONG TO TWO DISTINCT TYPES, SUS SOROFA AND INDICUS — TORF- 

 SCHWEIN — JAPAN PIGS — FERTILITY OF CROSSED PIGS — CHANGES IN THE 

 SKULL OF THE HIGHLY CULTIVATED RACES — CONVERGENCE OF CHARACTER 

 — GESTATION — SOLID-HOOFED SWINE — CURIOUS APPENDAGES TO THE JAWS 

 — DECREASE IN SIZE OF THE TUSKS — YOUNG PIGS LONGITUDINALLY STRIPED 

 — FERAL PIGS — CROSSED BREEDS. 



CATTLE. — ZEBU A DISTINCT SPECIES — EUROPEAN CATTLE PROBABLY DE- 

 SCENDED FROM THREE WILD FORMS — ALL THE RACES NOW FERTILE TOGETHER 

 — BRITISH PARK CATTLE — ON THE COLOUR OF THE ABORIGINAL SPECIES — 

 CONSTITUTIONAL DIFFERENCES — SOUTH AFRICAN RACES — SOUTH AMERICAN 

 RACES — NIATA CATTLE — ORIGIN OF THE VARIOUS RACES OF CATTLE. 



SHEEP. — REMARKABLE RACES OF — VARIATIONS ATTACHED TO THE MALE SEX 

 — ADAPTATIONS TO VARIOUS CONDITIONS — GESTATION OF — CHANGES IN THE 

 WOOL — SEMI-MONSTROUS BREEDS. 



GOATS. — REMARKABLE VARIATIONS OF. 



The breeds of the pig have recently been more closely studied, 

 though much still remains to be done, than those of almost any 

 other domesticated animal. This has been effected by Her- 

 mann von Nathusius in two admirable works, especially in the 

 later one on the Skulls of the several races, and by Riitimeyer 

 in his celebrated Fauna of the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings. 1 

 Nathusius has shown that all the known breeds may be 

 divided into two great groups : one resembling in all im- 

 portant respects and no doubt descended from the common 

 wild boar ; so that this may be called the Sus scrofa group. 

 The other group differs in several important and constant 

 osteological characters ; its wild parent-form is unknown ; 

 the name given to it by Nathusius, according to the law of 

 priority, is Sus indicus, of Pallas. This name must now be 

 followed, though an unfortunate one, as the wild aboriginal 



1 Hermann von Nathusius, 'Die 'Schweinesch'adel,' Berlin, 1864. Riiti- 

 Racen des Schweines,' Berlin, 1860; meyer, ' Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten, 

 and ' Vorstudien fur Geschichte,' &c., Basel, 1861. 



