igij- ScHARFF. — On the Irish Pig. 175 



says it had a knowing look and a bright quizzical eye. It 

 was exceedingly fleet and celebrated for its cunning. We 

 need not wonder that it was companionable and that it 

 became almost one of the family among the Irish peasantry. 

 Its activity and agility must have been extraordinary, 

 and it is said to have cleared a five-barred gate as well as 

 any hunter. Carleton-^ tells us that the backs of the old 

 Irish pigs formed a rainbow arch capable of being contracted 

 or extended to an inconceivable degree and that their usual 

 rate of travelling in droves was at mail-coach speed or six 

 Irish miles an hour, preceded by an outrider to clear the 

 way, whilst their rear was brought up by another horseman 

 going at a three-quarter gallop. This description may be 

 somew^hat exaggerated and even more so when he likens the 

 droves of pigs to a flock of antelopes crossing the deserts of 

 the East. Yet an underlying stratum of truth there must 

 be in all these stories which suggest that the Irish greyhound 

 pig was a remarkably swdft and agile creature, whereas his 

 modern representative is the very reverse. 



A curious feature v;hich we note in the illustration is 

 the pendulous wattles hanging down at the throat or rather 

 at the corners of the jaw. Similar appendages occasionally 

 occur in Normandy pigs according to Darwin^ and it is 

 quite possible that they were not characteristic of the Irish 

 race, but onl}/ appeared in certain litters. From the fact 

 that no wild pigs were known to have analogous appendages, 

 Darwin argued that there was no reason to suppose that their 

 appearance is due to reversion. Since Darwin enunciated 

 these opinions Rolleston^ pointed out that similar append- 

 ages are found in the wild swine of Java — Sus verrucosus. 

 Hence the wild ancestors of the Irish greyhound pig may 

 likewise have possessed them. 



^ Carleton, W., " Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry," 3 vols., 

 London, 1 896. 



^ Darwin, Charles, " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i 

 (2nd ed.), 1890. 



^ Rolleston, G., "On the Domestic Pig of Britain in prehistoric times" 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (2) Zool., vol. i., 1876. 



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