282 PROF. ROLLESTON ON THE DOMESTIC PIG 



continuous slope in the same plane as is the case in the Wild Boar of Germany (PI. XLII. fig. 5) ; 

 hut this difference may be observed in skulls certainly of Wild Boars from the Thames-valley 

 deposits; whilst the great wear of the teeth (see p. 258, note * ahove) and the slenderness and 

 length of the naso-facial region are much in favour of considering this specimen to have 

 helonged to the wild race. I have placed side hy side with the measurements of this skull the 

 measurements given by Riitimeyer, /. c. pp. 45 and 183, of his " Torfschwein," Sus scrofa,var. 

 palustris. Unhappily, Riitimeyer has never been able to procure (see pp. 43 and 45, note 1) a 

 skull of this variety of Sus with the facial hones in connexion with the hrain-case, nor has 

 Nathusius (see p. 149, /. c.) ever been ahle to see an uninjured lacrymal bone from the same 

 animal. These facts, whilst making the value of this skull (the opportunity of figuring which 

 I owe to the kindness of Professor Prestwich) greater, make the value of the comparison of its 

 measurements less. 



The instructive observations of Nathusius (I. c. pp. 99-101), to the effect that ill-nourished 

 pigs have the entire length of their skulls greater as measured from the occipital crest to the 

 apex of the snout, whilst the portion of that length made up hy the frontal and parietal is 

 somewhat shorter, and the nasal portion proportionally longer, when coupled with the fact of 

 the great wear of the teeth in this specimen, enable us to explain the one great point of 

 inferiority, that of the length of the fronto-parietal region, which this skull's measurements 

 show us, compared with those of the " Torfschwein." It may be added, that the true explana- 

 tion of Dr. Gray's statement (Brit. Mus. Catal. 1869, p. 329), that the nasal hones of the skull 

 elongate as Suidae increase in age, " and especially as they reach adult and old age," is probably 

 that he had in his mind's eye skulls of old and ill-fed wild pigs, such as this specimen., On 

 the other hand, when we are comparing such skulls as this with the " Torfschwein " of 

 Riitimeyer, we must recollect that he represents this latter variety of pig, and what he supposes 

 to be its still surviving representative, the " Blindtner-Schwein," as having a short snout (see 

 pp. 42, 45, 181-185). The classificatory value, however, of such a peculiarity is much reduced 

 hy the results of such experiments as those of Nathusius just referred to. 



Measurements of Iffley Skull and of Mulimeyers " Torfschtveiii" pp. 45, 183, I.e. 



Iffley Skull. Torfschwein. 

 inches. inches. 



Greatest frontal width between ectorbital processes 3 - 2 37 



Least width on vertex - 8 0"9 



Greatest interzygomatic width 4 - 6 4"7— 4"9 



Height of occipital from inferior border of foramen magnum . . 35 3'8-4-5 



Length of vertex from level of supraorbital foramen to ridge of 



occiput 3 - 8 4 - 4 



Horizontal distance from anterior border of orbit to posterior of 



temporal fossa 3 - 3 - l 



Length of intermaxillary along alveolar border 2'1 l'9-2'4 



Maximum length of skull from apex of intermaxillaries .... 109 — 



Length of nasal bones (approximately) 5 - 5 — 



Length from apex of intermaxillaries to inferior border of foramen 



magnum 10"3 — 



Length from anterior external angle (apex) of frontal to middle of 



occipital ridge 5 - 9 — ■■ 



Length from middle of fronto-nasal suture to middle of occipital 



ridsre 4 - 8 — 



