OF PREHISTORIC TIMES IN BRITAIN. 265 



presence, ■understand how the lacrimal is sometimes found to he shorter than we should 

 have expected it to be in skulls such as those of the wild sows from prehistoric deposits 

 in this country, measurements of which are given below. 



As the interpretation I suggest of the proportions observed to exist between the length 

 and height of the lacrymal bone depends upon the method of gradations, as applied not 

 only to several varieties, but indeed to several species of Suidse, as well as upon a history 

 c-f the development of the bone, it will be well now to give a short list of those species- 

 pointing out the particulars which justify their claim to that rank, and contrasting them 

 with the aggregate of characters which do enable us, as a matter of fact, to differentiate 

 such forms as Sus cristatus from Sus scrofa, possibly without justifying us in considering 

 them distinct species. 



And first of Sus barbatus. I am in no way inclined to give too much weight to dif- 

 ferences in colouring or in character of hair or bristles ; still a glance at the drawing of 

 this animal in S. Midler's Verhandl. Taf. 30, showing its half black, half tawny, wavily, 

 not crisply, curling beard, its ochraceous dorsal stripe, and its tail ending in a consider- 

 able brush, impresses one with the idea that it is impossible that the bony substructures 

 should not make some approach at least to a similar diversity from other forms of Suidse. 

 This anticipation was fully borne out by an examination of four skulls, two of which are 

 in the British, and one in the Oxford Museum — and of Schlegel's figure of the skull 

 described by him, and S. Miiller, Verhandl. pp. 173, 179-181, and Taf. 31. figs. 4 &5. 



The skull of Sus barbatus is absolutely longer than the skulls either of Sus scrofa, var. 

 ferus, or Sus cristatus ; and relatively to the body its length is considerably greater, 

 being, as given by Fitzinger, no less than •§ of the length of the trunk. The contour 

 described by its sagittal suture is, as my figures show, strikingly different from that 

 described by the corresponding suture in most other Suidse ; its highest point is some 

 way in front of the plane of the occipital squama, and occupies a level far above the plane 

 occupied by the anterior half of the frontal or by the nasal bones ; and these latter bones 

 make up more than one half of the entire length of the skull, resembling herein the 

 typical Sus scrofa, whilst the naso-frontal suture resembles that of Sus cristatus. Its 

 maximum interzygomatic width is in the middle of that arch, not at its posterior 

 border as in most other Suidae. 



In addition to these larger points, the following may be mentioned as having a great 

 morphological importance, though relating to smaller structural peculiarities. The third 

 molar consists of three lobes ; but, large as is the jaw and the canine armature of this Sus, 

 the most posteriorly placed of the three lobes is more simple than even the very simple 

 posterior lobe of the pigmy Sus andamanensis, having only one cusp prominently marked 

 in the upper, and four in the lower jaw, whilst the entire posterior lobe is little, if at all, 

 greater in antero-posterior extent, and much smaller in transverse, than either of the 

 anterior, differing thus altogether from Sus cristatus. 



A second point, relating to a small structure as measured by the callipers, which is a 

 very large one, however, to the morphologist, is the permanent retention by Sus barbatus 

 of the mesopterygoid of Parker (Phil. Trans. 1874, p. 324, pi. xxxvi. fig. iv. ms.pg) as a 

 distinct bone. This peculiarity was observed in all the four skulls of Sus barbatus 



