SWINE. 361 



proportion to size than the wild hog, and is withal a better animal in all the pig points. The 

 descendants of this old breed are now seen principally in the western counties of England, 

 where hogs of immense size are still reared, but greatly improved, when compared with their 

 ancestry, all of the points of the improved English hog being much finer, the carcass thicker, 

 and the propensity to fatten greatly increased. This breed is exceedingly prolific, the sows, 

 which are excellent nurses, often having from twelve to eighteen pigs in one litter. It is sup 

 posed that the Berkshire and Hampshire came originally from this stock, but by some early 

 cross obtained their present characteristics. It is found, however, that sows of the Neapolitan 

 breed and its crosses are better mothers and nurses than the Chinese ; both kinds also requir 

 ing peculiar care to prevent the breeding sows from becoming hurtfully fat ; so much so that 

 unless kept on rather scanty fare they become useless for breeding. 



Darwin, in his observations upon 

 the variations of swine under domes 

 tication, has the following, touching 

 the tendency of domesticated animals 

 to revert to their feral or wild type: 

 &quot; The common belief that all do 

 mesticated animals, when they run 

 wild, revert completely to the charac 

 ter of their parent stock, is chiefly 

 founded, as far as I can discover, on 

 feral pigs. But even in this case 

 the belief is not grounded on suffi 

 cient evidence; for the two main 

 types of S. scrofa and Indicus have 



never been distinguished in a feral state. The young re-acquire their longitudinal 

 stripes, and the boars invariably re-assume their tusks. They revert also in the general 

 shape of their bodies, and in the length of their legs and muzzles, to the state of the 

 wild animal, as might have been expected from the amount of exercise which they 

 are compelled to take in search of food. In Jamaica the feral pigs do not acquire the 

 full size of the European wild boar, never attaining a greater height than twenty 

 inches at the shoulder. In various countries they re-assume their original bristly 

 covering, but in different degrees, dependent on the climate ; thus, according to Roulin, the 

 semi-feral pigs in the hot valleys of New Granada are very scantily clothed, whereas on the 

 Paramos, at the height of from 7000 to 8000 feet, they acquire a thick covering of wool 

 lying under the bristles, like that on the truly wild pigs of France. These pigs on the 

 Paramos are small and stunted. The wild boar of India is said to have the bristles at the 

 end of its tail arranged like the plumes of an arrow, whilst the European boar has a 

 simple tuft; and it is a curious fact that many, but not all, of the feral pigs in Jamaica, 

 derived from a Spanish stock, have a plumed tail. With respect to color, feral pigs generally 

 revert to that of the wild boar ; but in certain parts of South America, as we have seen, 

 some of the semi-feral pigs have a curious white band across their stomachs ; and in certain 

 other hot places the pigs are red, and this color has likewise occasionally been observed in 

 the feral pigs of Jamaica. From these several facts we see that with pigs, when feral, there 

 is a strong tendency to revert to the wild type ; but that this tendency is largely governed by 

 the nature of the climate, amount of exercise, and other causes of change to which they have 

 been subjected. 



&quot;The last point worth notice is, that we have unusually good evidence of breeds of pigs 

 now keeping perfectly true which have been formed by the crossing of several distinct 

 breeds. The Improved Essex pigs, for instance, breed very true ; but there is no doubt that 

 they largely owe their present excellent qualities to crosses originally made by Lord Western 



