Chap. III. THEIR CHARACTER WHEN FERAL. £1 



The common belief that all domesticated animals, when 

 they run wild, revert completely to the character of their 

 parent-stock, is chiefly founded, as far as I can discover, on 

 feral pigs. But even in this case the belief is not grounded 

 on sufficient evidence ; for the two main types, namely, S. 

 scrofa and indicus, have not been distinguished. The young, 

 as we have just seen, reacquire their longitudinal stripes, and 

 the boars invariably reassume their tusks. They revert also 

 in the general shape of their bodies, and in the length of 

 their legs and muzzles, to the state of the wild animal, as 

 might have been expected from the amount of exercise which 

 they are compelled to take in search of food. In Jamaica the 

 feral pigs do not acquire the full size of the European wild 

 boar, " never attaining a greater height than 20 inches at the 

 shoulder." In various countries they reassume their original 

 bristly covering, but in different degrees, dependent on the 

 climate ; thus, according to Eoulin, the semi-feral pigs in 

 the hot valleys of New Granada are very scantily clothed ; 

 whereas, on the Paramos, at the height of 7000 to 8000 feet, 

 they acquire a thick covering of wool lying under the 

 bristles, like that on the truly wild pigs of France. These 

 pigs on the Paramos are small and stunted. The wild boar 

 of India is said to have the bristles at the end of its tail 

 arranged like the plumes of an arrow, whilst the European 

 boar has a simple tuft ; and it is a curious fact that many, 

 but not all, of the feral pigs in Jamaica, derived from a 

 Spanish stock, have a plumed tail. 29 With respect to colour, 

 feral pigs generally revert to that of the wild boar ; but in 

 certain parts of S. America, as we have seen, some of the 

 semi-feral pigs have a curious white band across their 

 stomachs ; and in certain other hot places the pigs are red, 

 and this colour has likewise occasionally been observed in 



sent from Patagonia by Al. d'Orbigny, lier, mais il est presque tout noir, et 



and he states that they have the peut-etre un peu plus ramasse dans 



occipital elevation of the wild European ses formes." 



boar, but that the head altogether is 29 Gosse's ' Jamaica,' p. 386, with a 



" plus courte et plus ramassee." He quotation from Williamson's ' Oriental 



lefers, also, to the skin of a feral pig Field Sports.' Also Col. Hamilton 



from North America, and says, "il Smith, in 'Naturalist Library,' vol. 



ressemble tout a fait a un petit san?- ix. p. 04. 



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