1868. J DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE SUIDvE. 19 



Fitzinger, in his Essay on the Setifei'a, in the ' Sitzungsberichte, 

 of the Vienna jXcademy for 1864, has brought together what has 

 been written on the subject, and has given a useful synopsis of the 

 species as characterized by their external characters. 



Unfortunately we have not any good works on the Domestic Pig, 

 or clear history of the origin of several of the most approved breeds, 

 some of which are most probably the result of the interbreeding of 

 several varieties. 



Desmarest, in his ' Mammif eres,' gives a list of the domestic varie- 

 ties divided into subvarieties (see Mamm. p. 390). 



Youall ('Pig,' 1860) and Richardson ('On the Pigs and their 

 Origin,' 1847) have written on the English breeds*. 



Little information respecting the species of the family is to be ob- 

 tained from travellers ; they are generally satisfied with stating that 

 a wild boar was observed, sometimes adding that it afforded good 

 sport, and rarely make any observations respecting the domestic 

 pigs. They often include under the name oi " wild hoar" species 

 of different genera, as the French naturalists do under the name of 

 sanglier. The skins of pigs are rarely preserved, except by profes- 

 sional collectors ; and they only collect the wild specimens ; so that 

 the specimens in Museums are limited in number and kinds, and 

 afford very imperfect materials for the systematic zoologist. 



The domestic animals of the different countries inhabited by man, 

 and especially the effect of the climate or local circumstances on those 

 that have been introduced from other countries, have yet to be stu- 

 died. There is no subject which naturalists living in a different 

 country have so entirely neglected, because they have supposed that 

 everything respecting it is known, while the truth is no animals are 

 so imperfectly known or understood. Take, for instance, the Horse, 

 which is so completely naturalized in North and South America, and 

 so locally distributed in Africa — abundant, prosperous, and high- 

 bred in some parts, very rare and, when present, greatly deteriorated 

 in others, even in the same latitudes. It is the same with the Pig. 

 Indeed these large animals, common to a great part of the inhabited 

 world, are less known than the species of the rats, mice, squirrels, 

 bats, and such small and comparatively unimportant animals, as far 

 as man is concerned, who generally classes them with vermin. 



Suborder II. Setifera. 



Toes in pairs ; the hinder pair shorter ; the outer ones on the 

 hind feet sometimes wanting. Stomach simple. Skin thick, with 

 bristles. Nose conical, truncated at the end, enclosing a couple of 

 supplementary bones between the intermaxillary and nasals, used 



* Since this was written, I have been informed by Mr. Darwin that Hermann 

 von Nathusius of Prussia has written on the Races of Pigs (1860), and pub- 

 lished the iigures of a number of skulls (18G4) ; but I have not been able to see 

 these works ; they are not in the Museum Library, nor in those of the Zoolo- 

 2;ieal, Roval, and Linnean Societies. 



