536 ON THE DOMESTIC PIG OE 



very much of their infantile eminence, which we see not rarely in 

 adult men, may be taken as furnishing another parallel to the 

 retention in some degree, by the adult Sns cristaius, of the cha- 

 racters of the young animaVs naso-frontal relations. 



In the fourth place, as regards the value of the relative shortness 

 of the lacrymal bone as a means for differentiating the skulls of 

 Stis cristatus and its allies from those of Sus scrofa, var. ferus, I was 

 for a long time of opinion that the same might be said of this all 

 but invariably observed peculiarity of Sus cristatus, which I have 

 already said, however shortly, of the straightness of its naso- 

 frontal suture ; and that all this may, mutatis mutandis, be repeated 

 as to the lacrymal's peculiarities in the two sub-species there can 

 be no doubt. Anybody who will examine the figures given in 

 Spix's ' Cephalogenesis,' or the reproduction of them in ErdFs 

 * Tafeln der vergleichenden Anatomic des Schadels,' 1841, can 

 convince himself of the fact that the malar border of the lacrymal 

 is very short as compared with its orbital border in the young 

 pig ^ ; and if he extend his observation to the various adult Suidae, 

 he will find that this side of the bone goes on growing from a 

 condition of permanent inferiority in Sus andamanensis till it reaches 

 subequality or entire equality with the orbital length in some 

 Suidae — such as Sus cristatus, Sus vittatus, Sus leucomystax, Sus 

 taivanus, Sus timoriensis, Sus papuensis, and Sus harbatus, all Suidae 

 without facial warts — and finally exceeds the orbital border in 

 length considerably in Sus scrofa, var. ferus, and ordinarily in Sus 

 verrucosus (and Sus celebensis ?), and disproportionately, it may be 

 added, in the African wart-hog (Vhacoclioerus), 



^ Though I do not suppose that it would be possible to say in 1876 what Dr. 

 Gray said (*Proc. Zool. Soc' 1868, p. 19) in 1868, to the effect that Nathusius's works 

 were not to be had either in the library of the British Museum or in the library of 

 either the Zoological, Royal, or Linnean Society, it may nevertheless be convenient 

 to give here the results of his measurements of the borders of the lacrymal bones at 

 different periods of the life of Sua scrofa. They stand thus at p. 10 of his work 

 of 1864:— 



Newly born. 2 months old. 6 months old. Adult. 

 Lacrymal bone. millim. millim, millim. millim. 



Height 7 13 18 21 



Frontal border 11 20 42 60 



Malar border 3 6 25 35 



Ratio of height i 19 2'6 3 



Ratio of frontal border i i-8 3*8 55 



Ratio of malar border i 2 S'g 11 '6 



