MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 159 



Family TAYASSl II).K< 



PECCARIES. 



Snout, as in SuidsB. Dentition: if, c\ t pf,»t$; total 38. [ncisors 

 rooted: upper canines directed downward, with sharp cutting hinder 

 edges. Toes, four on the fore feet and three on the hind feel (the 

 fifth wanting). Stomach complex. A caecum. Confined to the New 

 World.'' (Flower and Lydekker.) 



Genus TAYASSU Fischer (1814). c 



Tayassu Fischer, Zoognosia, III, 1814, p. 284. Type. — Tayassu pecari 



Fischer=/Sws albirostris Hliger. 

 Diet, titles G. Cuvier, Regne Animal. I. 1817. p. ■2:',~='J , <u/<issk Fisher. 

 Notophorus G. Fischer, Mem. Soc. Imp. des Nat. de Mosoou, V. 1817, p. lis. 



Replacing Tayassu. 



The genus Tayassu, containing the" American pigs, differs from 

 Sus and the other Old World genera in having hut four upper 

 incisors, and only three premolars on each side above and below, the 

 dental formula being i |=?, c £i, pm :':;!, m |=|=38 (fig. 5); their 

 median metacarpal and metatarsal hones are ankylosed into cannon- 



a For a plea for the retention of the names Dicotyles and Dicotylida?, sec Gill, 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XV, p. 38, March ."». 1902; sec also Thomas, idem, 

 pp. 153, 11)7 : also Allen. Ball. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.. XVI. 1002. pp. !<;•_>. 167. 



^Although not indigenous to the region the family Snida? is represented by 

 feral swine : 



SUS SCROFA DOMESTICUS. 



FERAL DOMESTIC HOG. 



Wild domestic pigs are numerous in many parts of Texas and Mexico, 

 along the Rio Grande, and are particularly abundant and ferocious about the 

 mouth of (he Colorado River, in Sonora. If attacked they become dangerous 

 foes. While camped opposite the mouth of Hardy River, at tide water close to 

 the month of the Colorado, several large pigs were killed, and their excellent 

 tlesli added to our bill of fare. These pigs, descended from Berkshire stock. 

 were black and of extraordinary size. The skull of an adult male, from near the 

 mouth of the Colorado River (No. 60356 U.S.N.M.), measures: Greatest length, 

 :::'.."> mm.: basal length, .'Hi*: basilar length i to tip of premaxillary), 292; 

 palatal length to tip of premaxillary. 214 : width of palate at tirst premolar. 51 : 

 zygomatic breadth, 169; least interorbital breadth. SI; length of nasals. Ids; 

 greatest breadth of both nasals together. ::.".: occipital depth I to lower rim of 

 foramen magnum ). 124. 



"Elliot, in bis Land and Sea Mammals of Middle America and the Wes1 In- 

 dies (Field Columbian Museum, publication 95, zoological series, iv. im. 1. 1904, 

 pp. 61-68, fig xxii and plates xxv-xxvin), uses the generic name Tagassu Frisch 

 (Das Natur-Syst. vierfiiss. Thiero. in Tabollen. .*'. Tab. Gen., 1775. Type. Sus 

 tajacu Linnaeus), and uses the family name Tagassuidw. *et\ however, Thomas 

 and Miller in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 7th ser.. XVI, pp. 461 p;|. October, 

 1905. 



