THE PIG FAMILY. 



67 



form a sort of mane. The legs are thin in 

 the lower parts; only the two middle digits 

 touch the ground, and these are completely 

 encased by hoofs; the lateral digits are short 

 and carry accessory hoofs. The tail is 

 rather short, sometimes even quite unde- 

 veloped; when present it carries a tuft of 

 long bristles. The teats are numerous, and 

 are situated on the abdomen. In most cases 

 the young have a striped or spotted coat. 



All members of the family are social and 

 nocturnal in their habits, omnivorous in their 

 diet, given to frequenting waters and marshes, 

 and fond of wallowing in mire. They live 

 in more or less numerous troops, and feed on 

 all that they find. Though they consume 

 principally plants, roots, and tubers, they 

 have no hesitation in devouring the living 

 animals that fall in their way, and do not 

 leave even carrion untouched. Notwith- 

 standing their voracity, their frequently dis- 

 gusting food, and their habits, it cannot be 

 said that they are in themselves filthy animals. 

 They dig with their snouts in the ground, 

 wallow in mire, rub themselves against trees 

 to coat their bristles with resin, but they 

 always choose out a particular place far from 

 their lair in which to deposit their dung. By 

 day they remain inactive, and they go about 

 in search of their food by night. The banks 

 of rivers and pools, bogs and marshes are 

 their favourite resorts. They run and gallop 

 tolerably well, uttering loud grunts, are excel- 

 lent swimmers, and are assisted in this mode 

 of locomotion by a thick layer of fat developed 

 between the skin and the muscles. Their 

 sense of smell is very acute. They follow 

 the track of a wounded animal like dogs, and 

 manage to find out underground fungi and 

 tubers by means of their nose. Their hear- 

 ing is likewise very keen, but the other senses 

 are obtuse. 



Usually peaceable, but by no means timid 

 animals, the pigs know how to defend them- 

 selves both against beasts of prey and against 

 man, when they find that they cannot escape 



by flight. They support one another in their 

 battles; the males, which are always better 

 armed, defend the females and young with 

 courage, and though not always victorious 

 they are antagonists not to be despised. 



The genera which we distinguish in this 

 family are distributed over both hemispheres; 

 but the pigs of the Old World are altogether 

 different from those of America. We will 

 begin with the former. 



The true Pigs, forming the genus Sus, 

 have preserved more of the original characters 

 than the other members of the family, and if 

 one will speak of antediluvian animals it is 

 rather the pigs than the much more recent 

 hippopotamuses, as is usually the case, that 

 should be so designated. 



In PI. XXIII is represented a family of 

 wild boars (Sits scrofa) belonging to our own 

 division of the globe. This species has a 

 very remarkable geographical distribution. 

 It is found in all Asia and Europe, including 

 the islands of the Mediterranean and the 

 countries round, and extends even to the 

 neighbourhood of the Arctic zone. A species 

 so widely distributed could not fail to exhibit 

 local varieties or races, which may present 

 considerable differences among one another. 

 It is, therefore, not to be wondered at when 

 we find that each of the Sunda Islands has its 

 own race, which has been described by many- 

 naturalists as a separate species, or that the 

 wild pigs of the Atlas are a little different 

 from those of Central Europe, which latter 

 again can be very easily distinguished from 

 their Indian kindred. The difficulties arising 

 from this production of local varieties are 

 multiplied by the facility with which all these 

 races can be habituated to a certain kind of 

 domestication, though just as ready to revert 

 with equal rapidity to the wild condition when 

 opportunity offers. Now, since the wild- 

 boar has been domesticated from the earliest 

 times in Egypt as well as in the East, there 

 arises therefrom an extraordinarily intricate 

 problem, since the naturalist always has to 



