SOME LESSER DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 93 



pigs? In the Highlands and Islands of Scotland there 

 existed till after the middle of the nineteenth century a race 

 of pigs of primitive character (Fig. 20, p. 91). They are 

 generally spoken of as domesticated pigs which had run wild, 

 and under natural conditions had reverted towards the type 

 of the wild boar. But there is no definite evidence that they 

 were ever anything better than they became, and I prefer to 

 regard them as survivors of the early stages of domestication, 

 which, like the primitive breeds of Sheep, Oxen and Horses, 

 had been driven by the advances of civilization to the refuges 

 of the outlying parts of our island. In many ways they re- 

 sembled the wild hogs from which they sprang, and in this 

 their interest lies, for they are a stepping-stone between the 

 Wild Boar and the Common Pig. 



Look at their characteristics as Prof. D. Low found them 

 in 1845. Like their wild ancestors they had erect ears, an 

 arched back with coarse bristles along neck and spine, and 

 they were of dusky brown colour. They retained many 

 wild habits, foraged for themselves on heath-clad hills or 

 moors, grubbing up the roots of plants with their strong- 

 snouts, devouring, when they could find them, eggs and 

 young of hill-birds, such as Plovers and Grouse, and even 

 defenceless new-born lambs. Like the wild boars of north- 

 eastern France to-day, they were the plague of the cultivated 

 lands, now raiding potato-fields, now destroying corn crops. 

 Lastly, they resembled wild pigs in their general build, 

 having the small bodies and long legs of creatures whose food 

 and safety depend upon their activity. 



Similar primitive pigs existed also up to the latter half of 

 last century in Shetland and in Orkney, where the small huts 

 which used to afford them shelter on the moors may still be 

 seen. It is interesting to recall that the hair of the Orkney 

 pig was so long that the men of Hoy, as Rev. Geo. Low 

 tells (i 774), preferred it for making the ropes on which they 

 risked their lives collecting birds' eggs on the cliffs; for the 

 elasticity of the swines' hair rope hindered it from cutting 

 on sharp rock edges, though this advantage was somewhat 

 counterbalanced by a proneness on the part of the rope to 

 untwist, to the destruction of its human burden. 



Yet domestication had its influence even on this primi- 

 tive breed : the simple pigs of the Highlands and Islands 



