46 Dr. J. E. Ciiay on the Mculagascar River- Hog. 



when I ^ave the name madagascariensis to this species, tliat 

 y\. CJrandidier, in tlie ' Revue et Mapisin de Zoologie,' 1867, 

 tome xix. p. 318, had named the wild pig from Madagascar 

 Potamoch<vrus Edicanisii ', and I ghidly adopt his name, as 

 it was publislied previously. 



All M. Grandidier says respecting this species is : — "P. 

 Edwardsii (noh.). Noni malgache Lambou. De la cote S.O. 

 (Moroundava). Roux-cannelle, crinifere blanch^tre, dpaisse ; 

 membres d'un brun ibnce. Taille petite, Les soies sont tr^s- 

 longues ; les oreilles sont depourvues de pinceau de poils k 

 leurs extrdmites; joues noires, encadrees de longues soies 

 blanches." 



The British Museum purchased of Mr. Edward Bartlett a 

 young specimen of a wild pig from Ambodiaque, west of 

 Tananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, which he names 

 '^ Potamochosrus madagascuriensis.^^ I have compared with 

 this specimen a young bosch-vark [Potamochcerus africanus) 

 in the British Museum from South Africa, and I can find very 

 little difference between it and the much younger specimen 

 from Madagascar received from Mr. Bartlett. 



The latter has the longer white hairs on the chine, which are 

 black at the base and form a black spot between the ends of the 

 bladebones ; and it agrees in the general colouring, and only 

 differs from the larger specimen in having the short black stripes 

 on the sides rather less indistinct, evidently the remains of 

 the dark spots with which the very young bosch-varks are 

 marked. 



The skull of this specimen, which is probably that of a 

 female, has the impressions on the side of the nose only 

 slightly defined, and the zygomatic arch is thin and with a 

 rounded outline beneath. The nose is slender and rather flat, 

 and rounded on the sides of the upper edge, but was in too 

 young a state to afford any sj^ecific characters. 



I was inclined to believe it to be the young of the continental 

 species. I had not seen an adult skin from Madagascar; 

 and unfortimately the skull was in too young a state to show 

 the characters of the species. But Mr. Edward Gerrard, jun., 

 has since brought to the Museum the skull of an adult male 

 river-hog (Potamochcerus) from Tamatava forest in Madagascar, 

 which proves that the JMadagascar animal is a very distinct 

 species, characterized by the narrowness of the nose, with a 

 rounded upper edge, the width of the skull at the zygomatic 

 arch, and the angular outline of the lower edge of this arch, 

 and by the situation of the aperture for the vessel in the lower 

 jaw, which seems to be a permanent character, as it is uniform 



