1917- SCHARFF. — On the Irish Pig. 183 



At the date when this turf-pig was brought to Ireland 

 this country was largely covered b}^ forests as it was for many 

 centuries after. Acorns were no doubt abundant, and there 

 can be no doubt that suitable food for pigs must have been 

 plentiful all over the country. At any rate even long after 

 their introduction to Ireland pigs probably led a semi-feral 

 life. They had no need to adapt themselves to changed 

 conditions, and they thus practically remained for many 

 centuries in the same primitive state as when first introduced. 

 Probably many of them took to the forests altogether, 

 leading there an existence precisely corresponding to that 

 of their ancient wild predecessors. As I remarked before, 

 they would have lost the characters of domestication after 

 a certain number of generations, reverting in every respect 

 to their wild ancestor. "In no part of the world as in 

 Ireland are such vast herds of boars and wild pigs to be 

 found," says Giraldus Cambrensis, " but they are a small, 

 ill-shaped, and cowardly breed, no less degenerate in boldness 

 and ferocity than in their growth and shape." The pigs 

 the writer saw in Ireland in the 12th century were evidently 

 not the wild swine he was accustomed to in England, but 

 the feral descendants of the old domesticated turf-pig. 



We have still to determine the origin of the turf-pig. It 

 certainly is not a descendant of the European wild swine 

 which still occur in certain parts of central and southern 

 Europe. The turf-pig is distinguished from the latter by 

 its broad forehead, the round large eye sockets, the shortness 

 of the skull and the high and short lachrymal bone. In 

 all these characters it approaches the wild swine of the 

 East Indies (Sus vittatus) much more closely. This 

 resemblance is all the more striking when we compare the 

 turf-pig with the semi-feral pigs of the East, and it seems 

 probable that our ancient dom.estic pigs have been imported 

 from the East through the Mediterranean region and 

 northward through western Europe to Ireland. This 

 importation, of course, was due to the vast human migrations 

 which took place in the dim and distant past, the early 

 tribes being accompanied in their wanderings by their 

 domestic animals. 



