$86 



HOOFED ANIMALS 



DOMESTIC SWINE (Sus scrofa). 

 Coloured Plate XVIII. Fig. 2. 



The true Swine accommodates itself to circumstances, 

 and there are few parts of the world into which man 

 has not introduced it. The Jews regarded the animal as 

 the most unclean of all beasts, and, much as the Moha- 

 metans hate the Jews, they were in hearty accord in their 

 detestation of the Swine. To our minds the chief idea in 

 the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that of the discomfort 

 and hunger of the wandering spendthrift ; 

 but to the Jews it conveyed unspeakable 

 degradation in keeping Swine belonging to 

 another man ; it indicated the most abject 

 humiliation, for a Swine-keeper was abhorred 

 as much as a leper. In the Scriptures the 

 mention of the animal is restricted to the 

 domesticated species, except in one instance, 

 in Psalm Ixxx. 13 'The boar out of the 

 wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of 

 the field doth devour it.' 



In all probability the Common, or 

 Domestic, Swine all the world over are the 

 descendants of either the European wild 

 species or its relatives of India ; but the 

 various breeds have been crossed and 

 intercrossed to such an extent as to baffle 

 inquiry. 



Some of the results of domestication are very apparent, 

 notably in the bodily form of various breeds. The Irish 

 Greyhound Pig, as implied by its name, is a long-legged, 

 lank-bodied, high-withered, narrow-headed animal ; while 

 the Harrison Pig has short legs supporting a huge cylin- 

 drical trunk, the belly of which nearly touches the ground. 

 The Berkshire Pig, one of our most valuable breeds, is 

 inferior in point of size, and is a much more shapely and 

 alert-looking animal than many others, which are just more 

 or less cylindrical masses of flesh and fat. The Japanese 

 Masked Pig has 'an extraordinary appearance, from its 



BONES OF THE 

 FOOT OF THE PIG. 



