WILD BOAR 389 



striking manner, from the mouse-deer or chevrotains, the two families 

 are classed in a group by themselves, under the name of Suina. 



The pigs themselves {SnidcE) are distinguished by the long head, 

 the truncated, mobile snout, terminating in a naked disc, in which are 

 pierced the nostrils, and the upward curvature of the tusks of the upper 

 jaw, against the sides of which the lower tusks bite. In the feet the 

 pair of side-toes are comparatively small and not applied to the ground 

 in walking ; while the hind cheek-teeth, of which the last on each side 

 of the lower jaw is elongated, do not show a distinct trefoil-pattern on 

 their grinding surfaces. Bristly hair generally more or less completely 

 clothes the body. 



The more typical pigs, as represented in the first place by the wild 

 boar, are characterised by the comparatively narrow and pointed head 

 which is almost conical in shape and 

 does not carry large conical warts on 

 the face ; by the comparatively small 

 size of the upper tusks ; and also by 

 the relatively simple structure and low- 

 ness of the last of the cheek, or molar, 

 teeth in each jaw. The wild boar, as 

 the typical representative of the whole 

 group, requires nothing in this place in 

 the way of description, except perhaps 

 the statement that the height at the 

 shoulder may reach about 36 inches Fig. 82.— Head of Wild Boar. 



in fine specimens. The range of the 



species originally included the greater part of Europe, northern Africa, 

 and south-western and Central Asia, at least as far east as the Thian 

 Shan. 



The wild boar of Morocco and Algeria was separated as a local 

 variety or race from the typical wild boar of Europe by Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater on p. 443 of the Zoological Society's Proceedings for i860, 

 as Siis scrofa barbarns ; and this name it has been suffered to retain, 

 despite the fact that its difference from the wild boar of France (which, 

 be it remembered, is not the typical race of the species) appears to be 

 but slight. 



Vicomte Edmond de Poncins, who has shot both the Algerian and 

 the French wild boar, states that the former is often a little darker 

 than the latter, and has also shorter and less abundant hair, while its 

 snout appears to be slightly longer. This sportsman gives 33 inches 

 as an average hei^it of an Algerian boar, although he admits the 



