8 SOLID-HOOFED HOGS. 



Southern town, a large Poland-China boar had one hind foot 

 exactly like the one shown in our picture, and a large proportion 

 of the young pigs from him were marked in the same way." I'his 

 recalls strongly to memory the celebrated Ancon ram, mentioned 

 in the " Origin of Species," with his notable short legs, and the 

 useful breed of short-legged sheep of which he became the 

 progenitor. 



The herd of mule-footed hogs, from one member of which the 

 foot was sent, ranges the woods about eight miles north of Baton 

 Rouge, Louisiana, and none of tlie old settlers could tell anything 

 as to their origin, looking upon it simply as " a herd of wild hogs." 



Dr. Coues observes that in the new breed " the terminal 

 phalanges of the functional toes are united to form a single broad 

 phalange ; above this, the other two phalanges remain perfectly 

 distinct. The hoof is perfectly solid, and on its sole there was 

 a broad, angular elevation of solid substance, curiously like the 

 frog of a horse's hoof." This formation of the parts of the feet 

 is not only a new departure in the history of the old conservative 

 family of the Sus, but is also (unless I am much mistaken) 

 absolutely a new departure in the history of the whole sub-order 

 of Paired-hoofed Ungulates. It shows also that Nature can 

 effect her transformations, not by the slowest and most patient 

 steps, but also by what, in our present ignorance of some of her 

 guiding laws, we must still call " sports." 



The Importance of Photography in Relation to Micro- 

 scopic Work. — M. Duchesnes, writing in the Bulletin of the 

 French Photographic Society, very emphatically insists on the 

 desirability of the microscopical student making use of photography 

 in his work, and points out how well suited certain diatoms are for 

 first trials in micro-photography. He especially refers to the 

 siliceous skeleton of Amphipleura pelliicida as an example of a 

 diatom having remarkably delicate structure, and serving well as a 

 test-object to measure the success of photographic illustrations. 



