254 PROF. ROLLESTON ON THE DOMESTIC PIG 



equality, if not actual equality, between the malar and the orbital borders of the 

 lacrymal bone may be found in prehistoric skulls of the Sus scrofa, var. ferus, and 

 especially in the female skulls of that variety of Sus which, in other points, such as the 

 slenderness of the snout, differ from the " Torfschwein," the representative in those 

 times of Sus indicus, according to Rutimeyer ; and, thirdly, I think it is possible to show 

 that, whilst Sus cristatus, Sus leucomystax, Sus vittatus, and Sus timorensis form a closely 

 connected group of Suidce non verrucosi, with which, again, Sus andamanensis and Sus 

 papuensis are to be allied, all these subspecies differ in points of considerable if not of 

 specific value from Sus verrucosus of Java, from Sus celebensis, and, finally, from Sus scrofa 

 of the Palsearctic region as well as from the non-verrucose Sus barbatus of Borneo. 



It may be well to begin with this latter point first, and to show that the group of 

 Eastern Pigs, of which the Wild Pig of India, the Malay peninsula, and the Lancay 

 Islands, Sus cristatus, may be taken as a type, is always distinguishable from Bus scrofa, 

 var. ferus, of Europe, and Asia north of the Himalayas. This view is not equivalent to 

 one which should lay it down as certain that they are specifically distinct, a question 

 which it is not proposed to raise here. I should agree, however, with Mr. Jerdon, whose 

 book on the Mammals of India, 1874, came into my hands subsequently to the formation 

 of my opinion, in holding that the Indian Wild Hog was " as worthy of specific distinc- 

 tion as many other recognized species" {I.e. p. 241), though this is not to say much. 

 I should not, however, entirely accept his statement to the effect that the head of the 

 Indian Wild Hog was longer and more pointed than that of the European Wild Boar, 

 though this has been laid down by Colonel Sykes (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831, p. 30) as being the 

 state of the case ; for in measuring the relative lengths of the nasal and f ronto-parietal 

 regions of the Indian Wild Hog, I have come to think that precisely the reverse of this 

 statement is usually, though not invariably, the case, the Indian Hog having the nasal 

 bones shorter relatively to the rest of the roof-bones of the skull than Sus scrofa, var. 

 ferus. Neither do I agree with Colonel Sykes in holding that the straightness of the plane 

 of the forehead will differentiate the Indian at least from modern European Wild Boars : 

 some concavity is produced in the mesial contour-line of large Prehistoric Wild Boars, 

 not by any angulation at the junction of the facial with the cranial bones, as in modern 

 tame swine of highly cultivated breeds, but by the upgrowth of the back portion of the 

 skull roof-bones and the occipital transverse crest ; modern European Wild Boars, how- 

 ever, which are much inferior in size to their prehistoric and, indeed, to their mediaeval 

 predecessors, have the fronto-parietal and nasal lines forming one unbroken straight line. 



Colonel Sykes's words, " Tail never curled or spirally twisted," appear to me {I. c. p. 11) 

 to be said of the tame variety of the Indian Hog ; but though Eitzinger (Sitzungsbericht. 

 Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1864) specifies the form in which the caudal vertebrae are carried as 

 one of the specific marks in each of his descriptions of the Suidce, and though Linnaeus 

 uses the words (Ed. xiii. Syst. Nat. p. 85) "Cauda sinistrorsum recurvata" for differen- 

 tiating Canis familiaris from Canis lupus, s. Canis cauda incurvata, I am inclined to 

 think too much weight may be laid upon this point. 



Thoroughly trustworthy figures of the European Wild Boar, such as that given by 

 Schreber (Saugethiere, taf. ccexx.), or that in Buffon's Hist. Nat. v. pi. xiv., and Ered. 



