ART. XIII.-OiN A BREED OF SOLID-HOOFED PIGS APPARENTLY 

 ESTABLISHED IN TEXAS. 



By De. Elliott Coues, U. S. A. 



My attentioQ has recently been called to this matter by communica- 

 tions from a valued correspondent, Mr. G. W. Maruock, of Helotes, 

 Bexar County, Texas, who has further laid me under obligations by 

 transmitting the well-prepared specimen from which the accompanying 

 illustration has been made. 



Like the monstrosity of cleft-hoof occasionally witnessed in the horse 

 or ass, the peculiarity of the solid hoof is already known to occur in the 

 domestic pig. Thus, I am informed by Professor Baird of his recollec- 

 tion of such a case, there having been many years ago a number of solid- 

 hoofed pigs in the possession of a person residing near Carlisle, Pa., 

 who specially valued them for some advantage which the peculiarity 

 was supposed to confer. Professor Leidy also tells me that the same 

 thing is within his knowledge. 



As in the case of the monstrosity of cyclopism, which is of compara- 

 tively frequent occurrence in these animals, however, the formation of 

 the solid hoof seems to have been regarded as a mere freak of nature, 

 or monstrosity in the usual sense of that term ; whereas I gather from 

 my correspondence with Mr. Marnock that the solid hoofed pigs of Texas 

 are established as a race which transmits its peculiarities to its offspring 

 as surely as it does any other portion of its structure. I should judge 

 from Mr. Marnock's remarks that the solid-hoofed pigs of his locality 

 constitute a large proportion, if not a majority, of the species. 



The peculiarity is so firmly established that no tendency to revert to 

 the original and normal form is observable in these pigs. Mr. Marnock 

 informs me that the cross of a Folid-hoofed boar with a sow of the ordi- 

 nary type produces a litter the majority of which show the peculiarity 

 of the male parent. 



He alludes to a popular belief which ascribes the origin of this breed 

 to crossing with the peccary, — this being of course fallacious. 



The upshot of this modification of the foot is that a strictly artiodac- 

 tyle animal is transformed into an imperfectly perissodactyle one. As 

 far as the hoof itself is concerned, the pig is completely solidungulate. 

 It is also perfectly "odd toed", or single-toed, in the terminal phalanges, 

 anchylosis of which produces a single broad phalanx in the axis of the 

 limb. Above this, however, the other two phalanges, medial and proxi- 

 mal, of each of the two principal kiteral digits, remain perfectly dis- 



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