EINAR LÖNNBERG, THE GENUS POTAMOCHCERUS. 29 



Bush Pigs. The widtli of its parietal flat area is only 16,3 

 mm., or 5,3 % of the upper mesial length of skull. 



On the other hand skulls of Maiagasy boars in British 

 Museum have an upper mesial length, according to my mea- 

 surements, of 348 to 368 mm., and skulls of females (in Lei- 

 den and Stockholm) have the same dimension 342 — 343 mm. 

 The width of the parietal flat area is in the former from 32 

 to 40 mm., or in percentages of the upper mesial length of 

 the skull 9,1 to 10,8. According to the figure of a boar 

 skull communicated by Major ^ this percentage is about 10 

 in the animals he calls »P. larvaivs». They have thus a broa- 

 der parietal area than their relatives which inhabit the to 

 Madagascar nearest parts of the Continent, although not as 

 broad as those in the Cape Colony and Natal, In the females the 

 parietal flat area is, as ought to be expected, narrower than in 

 the boars viz. about 24 to 26 mm. which expressed in percentages 

 of the length of the skull will be about 7, o to 7,6 7o. According 

 to Major's figure - of a female skull this percentage is about 8. 

 Although these dimensions are somewhat smaller than the corre- 

 sponding ones of P. choeropotamus and P. ch. maschona, they are 

 much larger than those of the above mentioned small boar 

 from Madagascar. These statements pro ve the presence on 

 Madagascar of two different races of Bush Pig and it is thus 

 of great importance to find out to which of these the specific 

 name »larvatus» was originally given and if this name really 

 covers the same as the name »edwardsii». 



Fortunately Cuvter has communicated a very good 

 figure (fig. d. Pl. 22 of the work quoted above) from which 

 the relative dimensions of the skull may be found out quite 

 well. According to this figure the parietal flat area is narrow 

 and constitutes only 4,4 7o of the upper mesial length of the 

 skull. It is thus less than half what it ought to have been 

 if this figure should have represented the same animal as 

 t hat which Major regarded to be »P. larvatus», but it agrees 

 fairly well with the proportions of the boar skull from Maro- 

 voay, N. W. Madagascar. It appears thus to be no doubt 

 whatever that Potaynochoerus larvatus (F. Cuvier) is the name 

 which must be applied to the Madagascar Bush Pig with a 

 comparatively very narrow parietal region and certainly 



^ Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1897 p. 36ö. 

 2 L c. PL XXVI, fig. 2. 



