Sus verrucosus, Miill. t5 Schleg., and Allies. o23 



Men,, of the Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno, bears more 

 relation to the species of Sus of the Indian Archipelago, and, 

 above all, to Sus verrucosus of Java, than to Sus scrofa. 

 The characters of the skull of the young S. scrofa are per- 

 manent in S. Strozziij as well as in the Indian members of Sus 

 generally, and more particularly in /S. verrucosus ; one of the 

 characters referred to* is in the shape of the lower canines. 



This statement requires some further explanation. In 

 some Middle Tertiary members of Sus no difference is to be 

 found between the two sexes in the size or shape of the tusks ; 

 both have their lower canines of moderate size and width, 

 the outer and inner side being of equal breadth. This con- 

 dition is more or less maintained permanently by the females 

 of Pliocene and recent members of the genus, whereas in 

 some Pliocene forms of Sus the male sex acquires much larger 

 inferior canines, in which, however, the relative prop'jrtions 

 of size of the three sides, as seen in the females, as well as in 

 both sexes of forms more ancient than these Pliocene ones, are 

 still preserved. Gradually, however, these relative proportions 

 become altered, till at last we come to have the male S.scrofa- 

 type of lower canines, as described by Nathusius ; but, as a 

 matter of fact, even in this modernized type the canine of 

 young males shows the original conformation. 



The Pliocene forms of SuSj which have the above characters, 

 are, as I long ago f pointed out : '' Sus giganteus^^^ Falc. & 

 Cautl., from the Pliocene of the Siwaliks \, and S. Strozzii, 

 from the Upper Pliocene of Italy (Val d'Arno, Olivola, &c.) ; 

 and I then mentioned that not only S. verrucosus resembles 

 these fossil forms in this as well as in other respects, but 

 that S. barbatus shows the same conformation of lower 

 canines §. 



Nehring has dealt with the same argument, so far as recent 

 Suidaj are concerned, particularly in two of his numerous 

 important papers on the group il ; and recently Heude enters 

 into minute particulars as to the enamel-sculpture and shape 

 of the lower canines of Sus, to illustrate which are devoted 



* See also Forsyth .Major in Atti Soc. Tosc. Sc. Nat. vii. 1890, p. 61. 



t " Studien zur Geschichte der Wildachweine" (Zool. Anzeiger, 1883, 

 p. 299). 



X I had in view the fig. 17, pi. 71, of the ' Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis.' 



§ See also Forsyth Major, "L'Ossario di Olivola in Val di Magra (Prov. 

 di Massa-Carrara) " (Atti Soc. Tosc. Sc. Nat., Proc. Verb. vii. 1890, 

 p. 61). 



II Sitzungsber. Ges. naturf. Freunde zu Berlin, 21 Febr. 1888, p. 9. 



A. Nehring, " Ueber Sus celehensis und Verwandte " (Abliandl. und 

 Berichte d. k. Zool. und Autbropol.-Ethnogr. Museums zu Dresden, 

 1880-89, no. 2 : Berhn, 1889, p. 11). 



37* 



