AELIAN'S WART HOG 



had time to develop them properly, show unmistak- 

 able traces of them. Now it cannot be doubted that 

 we have to do here with a clear case of the inheritance 

 of acquired characters. 



In South-East Africa the lengthy name of the wart 

 hog is nothing less than Indhlovudawani. After this 

 one may well reply to the general query of " What's in a 

 name ? " with the answer, " A good deal." Though verna- 

 cular names of beasts should be really vernacular and 

 not pseudo- vernacular, like " the rude dog " for Canis 

 rudis, there is a limit, and we propose to stick to wart 

 hog in these pages. Representatives of the wart hogs 

 have been exhibited in the Gardens fairly continuously 

 since the year 1850 when the first example was received. 

 Aelian's wart hog was apparently first shown in 1861, 

 when a specimen was deposited by her late Majesty, 

 which had been given to her by that rather celebrated 

 potentate the King of Ashantee. It appears that 

 the wart hog is not bad eating. The late Dr. Crisp 

 dissected one that had died suddenly at the Zoo, and 

 cut off a chop for private consumption. It is not sur- 

 prising to hear that he " was werry much like pig." 

 The doctor furthermore made the excellent suggestion 

 on the strength of this banquet that a cross between 

 the wart hog and the domestic pig might result in 

 superior bacon, for the ribs of the Phacochoerus are 

 especially thickly covered with meat. This and the 

 other kinds of pigs possessed by the Zoological Society 

 are housed in adjacent enclosures, so that their but 

 slightly divergent characteristics can be readily com- 

 pared by the visitor. The fat and depressed body of 

 this pig contrasts with the leanish compressed body of 

 the wild boar, the ancestor it is presumed of the bacon- 

 producing porker. 



Z.G. 65 



