Permanence and Evolution. 39 



It is not known whence these pigs are 

 derived ; those of Jamaica are said tradition- 

 ally to come from Africa, which derives con- 

 firmation from their resemblance (see above) to 

 African pigs, and in general the slave trade has 

 made the relations between Africa and America, 

 specially tropical America, close. Many of the 

 Jamaica feral pigs have a curiously plumed tail, 

 which certainly it would have been thought 

 improbable to derive from a separate wild stock 

 if it had not been known that this characteristic 

 belongs to the Indian wild boar, and to many 

 domestic pigs in India. The Portuguese con- 

 nection, both with India and Brazil, was no 

 doubt the origin of their importation into 

 Jamaica. Here again we find that an apparently 

 trifling variation is really the mark of aboriginal 

 diversity, and generally in the history of the 

 pig we find that in proportion as we examine 

 closely what before appeared one, reveals itself 

 as multiple, and that apparently trifling charac- 



