1904.] FOREST-PIG OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 195 



hair on the face. Mr. F. J. Jackson also saw Mr. Church's 

 specimen, and may be able to verify this. 



" The natives of Western Nandi, in the vicinity of the forest 

 from which Lieut. Meinertzhagen obtained his specimens, tell me 

 that before the great rinderpest plague of 1891 these animals 

 were numerous in the forests of W. ISTandi, but the plague killed 

 nearly all ; they spoke of its fierceness, and said it occasionally 

 attacked women who went into the forest to gather firewood. 



" With regard to the distribution of the animal, I have heard 

 of it being found in the Leikipia forest, the iSubugo Leldian on 

 the E. side of the Rift valley, in the Kakumega forest, in the 

 Mau forest near Elgeyo, and I believe it will be found in the 

 Elgon forests." 



The specimens obtained by Lieut. Meinertzhagen consist of 

 (1) the imperfect skin, without skull, of a female from Mount 

 Kenya ; (2) a perfect skull, with a piece of body-skin, of a 

 young adult male from Nandi, near the Victoria Nyanza, altitude 

 7000 ft. ; and (3) an imperfect skull, without lower jaw, of an 

 old specimen from the last-named place. Specimen 2*, as being 

 a perfect skull, with a piece of skin, would naturally be selected 

 as the type of the species. 



The fii-st question that presents itself to every naturalist in 

 connection with such a form is as to whether the animal is most 

 nearly related to the ordinary Pigs, /Sus and its African represen- 

 tative PotamochcertijS, or to the aberrant and highly specialised 

 Wart-Hog, PhacochoeriijS, hitherto separated by a wide gap f from 

 every other member of the family. 



On a first superficial glance at the skull the answer to this 

 question would be that the new form was allied to Sus or 

 PotamochceriijS, and had nothing to do with PJiacochcerus, but 

 further study of the cranial and dental chai-acters gradually 

 entirely i*emoves such an impression, and indicates that the 

 animal is a link connecting the two groups, with an undeniable 

 and perhaps ancesti'al relationship to Phacochoerus. It would, in 

 fact, appear to be a su.rvivor of an intermediate stage in the spe- 

 cialisation of the Wart-Hog, its reduced incisors, enlarged upper 

 canines, complicated molars J, and basisphenoid pits all showing 

 a relationship to that animal, although neither the canines noi- 

 molars are so far advanced in their specialisation. On the other 

 hand, the general proportions of the skull and teeth are more as 



* B.M. no. 4.11.5.14. 



t Gray and, following him, Flower recognised a special family, tlie Phacoclioeridfe, 

 for tlie Wart- Hogs, but no other writers have done so, and the present discovery 

 confirms the judgment of those who included all the Old- World pigs in the Suidse. 



X Attention may be drawn here to the figures and description of a fossil Algerian 

 pig said to show some relationship to the Wart-Hog, Sus 'pliacoclimroides P. Thomas, 

 Mem. Soc. Geol. France, (3) iii. art. ii. p. 10, pi. iv. figs. 1 & 2 (1884). It is, how- 

 ever, clearly different from the animal now described. For this reference, and much 

 other assistance in connection with the present paper, I am indebted to Dr. Forsyth 

 Major, whose intimate knowledge of the group has been freely placed at my service. 



13* 



