CHAPTER XIX. 



THE PIG AND HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



THE PIG TRIBE. 



BY H. A. BEYDEN. 



MANY species and varieties of swine are found in different parts of the world, most of 

 them exhibiting strong traces of a general family resemblance, although widely 

 sundered as to habitats and often markedly differing in outward appearance. All are 

 omnivorous ; all have the stomach simpler in type than in the Ruminants ; and all have front 

 or incisor teeth in the upper jaw. The two great families of swine proper are the Pigs and 

 Peccaries. 



There has been much discussion among scientists as to the early origin of the various 

 breeds of domestic swine found in different parts of the world. There can be little doubt 

 that, although selective breeding has produced extraordinary differences in outward appearance, 

 even among the domestic pigs of our own islands, the origin of the numerous tame races is 

 to be sought in the ancestry of the wild breeds of the countries in which they are found. 

 Darwin has some very apposite remarks on the differences to be observed in domesticated 

 swine. " The peculiar form of the skull and body in the most highly cultivated races is," 

 he observes, "not characteristic of any one race, but is common to all when improved up to 



Photo ly W. Reid] [Withaic, N.B. 



A DOMESTICATED SOW AND HER PROGENY. 



The absence of stripes and spots on the young is a feature in which they differ from those of nearly all wild swine. 



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