37 



eacli Continent agree closely in general characters. The name 

 Peloiiax has been applied erroneously to some of the American 

 forms ; but the s[)ecimens on which it was based clearly belong 

 to Elotherium. This genus affords another example of the 

 aberrant Suilline offshoots, already mentioned. Some of the 

 species were nearly as large as a Rhinoceros, and in all there were 

 but two serviceable toes; the outer digits, seen in living ani- 

 mals of tliis group, being represented only by small rudiments 

 concealed beneath the skin. In the upper Miocene of Oregon, 

 Suillines are abundant, and almost all belong to tlie genus 

 Thinohyus, a near ally of the modern Peccary (Dicol/jles), but 

 having a greater number of teeth, and a few other distinguish- 

 ing features. In the Pliocene, Suillines are still numerous, and 

 all the American forms yet discovered are closely related to 

 Dicotyles. The genus Platygonus is represented by several 

 species, one of which was very abundant in the Post-Tertiary 

 of North America, and is apparently the last example of a side 

 branch, before the American Suillines culminate in existing 

 Peccaries. The feet in this species are more specialized than 

 in the living forms, and approach some of the peculiar features 

 of the ruminants; as for example a strong tendency to coales- 

 cence in the metapodial bones. The genus Platygonus became 

 extinct in the Post-Tertiary, and the later and existing species 

 are all true Peccaries. No authenticated remains of the genera 

 Sus^ PorcuSj P/iacocho'.rus, or the allied Hippojjoicnmts, the Old 

 World Suillines, have been found in America, although several 

 announcements to that effect have been made. 



In the series of generic forms between the lower Eocene 

 Eohyus and the existing Dicotyles, which I have very briefly 

 discussed, we have apparently the ancestral line ending in the 

 typical American Suillines. Although the demonstration is 

 not yet as complete as in the lineage of the Horse, this is not 

 owing to want of material, but rather to the fact that the 

 actual changes which transformed the early Tertiary pig into 

 the modern Peccary were comparatively slight, so far as they 

 are indicated in the skeletons preserved, while the lateral 



