PIGS 255 



THE TRUE PIGS. GENUS SUS. 

 Sus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 102 (1766). 



THE WILD BOAR. SUS SCROFA. 



Sus scrofa, Linn., loc. tit.; Owen, Brit. Foss. Mamm. p, 426 



(1846). 



Sus scrofa ferus, Ball, Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc. ser. 2, vol. iii. 

 P- 339 (1889). 



Distributed at the present day over the greater part of 

 Europe and Asia north of the Himalaya, but replaced in 

 India by the closely allied Sus cristatus, the Wild Boar has 

 long ceased to be a member of the British Fauna. The 

 earliest formation in which its remains have hitherto been 

 detected is the Norfolk forest-bed, belonging, as we have 

 already had occasion to mention, either to the latter part of 

 the Pliocene, or the early part of the Pleistocene period. Simi- 

 lar remains are likewise of common occurrence in the brick- 

 earths of the Thames Valley and the contemporary formations of 

 other parts of England ; while they also occur in the fens and 

 many English caves. They have likewise been obtained from 

 peat-bogs, as well as from caves, in Ireland. 



Of its existence in our islands to a comparatively late date 

 of the historical period, we have abundant testimony, which, 

 as in the case of the other Mammals exterminated during 

 that epoch, has been carefully collected and arranged by Mr. J. 

 E. Harting, in his work on "Extinct British Animals." We 

 there learn that a painting in a manuscript of the ninth century 

 represents a Saxon chief, attended by his huntsman and a 

 couple of hounds, pursuing Wild Boars through a wood. 

 Further, it is enacted in the Welsh laws of Howel Dha, promul- 

 gated towards the close of the tenth century, that the season 

 for Wild Boar hunting should last from the ninth of November 

 till the first of December; but it appears that later on, in 



