232 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



the development of the larger English breeds, such as the York- 

 shire, the Tamworth, and the Berkshire, the latter so largely 

 represented in that truly American breed, the Poland China. 



The Indian wild boar is closely related and very similar to 

 the European. He runs a little larger, standing often as high 

 as forty inches at the shoulders. Like his European cousin he 

 is a dangerous enemy and does not hesitate, when pursued, to 

 attack whatever appears, — men, horses, elephants, or even tigers. 

 Boar hunting, as it is called in Europe, and " pig sticking," as 

 the term goes in India, are therefore counted specially fine 

 sports for the hunter. 



Both these species inhabit the forests of the lower lands and 

 both cover extensive stretches of country. Their food is varied, 

 ranging from grass roots and worms, which they dig from the 

 ground with their serviceable rooters, to small animals, especially 

 snakes, against which they seem to hold a special grudge, and 

 which they are peculiarly skillful in killing by jumping and 

 lighting with all four feet on the tail, ripping up the creature 

 into " shoe strings " with their enormous tusks, which are the 

 prolonged incisor teeth. 



Besides the Indian wild boar southeastern Asia affords a 

 large number of closely related but smaller races. There are no 

 less than a half dozen of these well-marked species in the Malay 

 Peninsula alone, besides the curious little pigmy hog (Sus sal- 

 vanins) of the Himalayan foothills, standing only ten or eleven 

 inches at the shoulders. Still again there is the masked pig of 

 Japan, with its heavy folds of skin about the face and its immense 

 drooping ears. 



From some or several of these Asiatic species domesticated 

 races were doubtless developed long ago. Certain it is that 

 domesticated pigs were known in China before they were in 

 Europe, and that much of the blood of modern domestic swine 

 came originally from this stock, and would be traceable, if we 

 knew the history, to some of these native races or their extinct 

 relatives, of which there are many, ranging from a giant form 



