28 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 7. N:0 6. 



Potamoehoeriis larvatus (F. Cuvier). 



Major has pointed out that F. Cuvier in the first rank 

 based the name above on a skull which he figiired and whicli 

 according to Daubenton's statement had been aquired from 

 Madagascar.i Although F. Cuvier mixed in some other 

 things as well and also referred to material from South 

 Africa, it is right to regard the quoted name as belonging 

 to a »Malagasy Wild Hog» as Major did and others who 

 followed him as well. Major believed that there was only 

 one kind of Bush Pig to be found on Madagascar, and 

 thus the names Sus madagascar i ensis and Poiamochoerus Ed- 

 wardsi proposed by Grandidier ^ for such an animal from 

 the same island would only be synonyms to Cuvier's much 

 older name. They have also been regarded as such for in- 

 stance by Trouessart (Cat. Mam.) 



When the present author had the opportunity of exa- 

 mining in British Museum Nat. Hist. the material of Bush 

 Pigs brought home by Major from Madagascar and descri- 

 bed by him as P. larvatus I believed accordingly on his 

 authority to have before me material of Cuvier's species. 

 At a låter opportunity when I with the permission of Pro- 

 fessor W. Leche examined some Potamochoerus skulls belon- 

 ging to the Zootomical Institute of the Stockholm High 

 School I was struck by the aberrant size and shape of the 

 skull of an adult boar (n:o 4446) which had been collected 

 at Marovoay in Northwestern Madagascar by Dr. W. Kaudern. 

 It was quite apparent to me that it represented another and 

 different race than Major's »P. larvatus», which, by the way 

 also was represented in the same collection by an old fe- 

 male skull. 



The small boar skull collected by Dr. Kaudern is at 

 once recognized on its diminutive size and narrow parietal 

 flat area. Although the skull has belonged to a fully adult 

 animal with worn teeth, its upper mesial lenght only amounts 

 to 305 mm. and it is thus even smaller than P. ch. dcemonis 

 Major which is the smallest of the known continental 



^ »Daubenton avoit décrit uiie tete de sanglier qu'il dit venir de 



Madagascar» (F. Cuvier Mém. da Mus. d'hist. nat .T. VIII, p. 448, 



Paris 1822). 



^ Revue et Mag. de Zool. 2:e sér. T. XIX. Paris 1867. p. 85 T. p. 318- 



