80 



DOMESTIC PIGS. 



Chap. Ill 



in the domestic boar is related to his coat of bristles being: 

 diminished from living under shelter ? On the other hand, 

 as we shall immediately see, the tusks and bristles reappear 

 with feral boars, which are no longer protected from the 

 weather. It is not surprising thut the tusks should be more 

 affected than the other teeth ; as parts developed to serve 

 as secondary sexual characters are always liable to much 

 variation. 



It is a well-known fact that the young of wild European 

 and Indian pigs, 26 for the first six months, are longitudinally 

 banded with light-coloured stripes. This character generally 

 disappears under domestication. The Turkish domestic pigs, 

 however, have striped young, as have those of Westphalia, 

 " whatever may be their hue ; " 27 whether these latter pigs 

 belong to the same curly- haired race as the Turkish swine, 

 1 do not know. The pigs which have run wild in Jamaica 

 and the semi-feral pigs of New Granada, both those which 

 are black and those which are black with a white band across 

 the stomach, often extending over the back, have resumed 

 this aboriginal character and produce longitudinals-striped 

 young. This is likewise the case, at least occasionally, with 

 the neglected pigs in the Zambesi settlement on the coast of 

 Africa. 28 



26 D. Johnson's ' Sketches of Indian 

 Field Sports,' p. 272. Mr. Crawfurd 

 informs me that the same fact holds 

 good with the wild pigs of the Malay 

 peninsula. 



27 For Turkish pigs, see Desmarest, 

 ' Mammalogie,' 1820, p. 391. For 

 those of Westphalia, see Richardson's 

 'Pigs, their Origin, &c.,' 1847, p. 41. 



28 With respect to the several fore- 

 going and following statements on 

 feral pigs, see Roulin, in ' Mem. pre- 

 sented par divers Savans a l'Acad.,' 

 &c, Paris, torn. vi. 1835, p. 326. It 

 should be observed that his account 

 does not apply to truly feral pigs ; 

 but to pigs long introduced into the 

 country and living in a half-wild 

 state. For the truly feral pigs of 

 Jamaica, see Gosse's ' Sojourn in 

 Jamaica,' 1851, p. 386 ; and Ool 



Hamilton Smith, in ' Nat. Library, 

 vol. ix. p. 93. With respect to Africa 

 see Livingstone's ' Expedition to the 

 Zambesi,' 1865, p. 153. The most 

 precise statement with respect to the 

 tusks of the West Indian feral boars is 

 by P. Labat (quoted by Roulin) ; but 

 this author attributes the state of 

 these pigs to descent from a domes-tic 

 stock which he saw in Spain. Admiral 

 Sulivan, R.N., had ample opportunities 

 of observing the wild pigs on Eagle 

 Islet in the Falklands ; and he informs 

 me that they resembled wild boars 

 with bristly ridged backs and large 

 tusks. The pigs which have run wild 

 in the province of Buenos Ayres 

 (Rengger, ' Saugethiere,' s. 331) have 

 not reverted to the wild type. De 

 Blainville (' Osteographie,' p. 132) 

 refers to two skulls of domestic pigs 



