ABSENCE OF THE RAT, MOUSE, CAT, ETC. 145 



The reptiles and fishes are represented by about ten of our 

 commonest species. 



The common mouse and our two house-rats, as well as the 

 domestic cat and the barn-door fowl, are absent from the 

 Lake-habitations of Switzerland, as also from the Kjokken- 

 moddings of Denmark ; Prof. Rutimeyer attributes to a later 

 period a single bone of the latter bird which was found at 

 Morges, a settlement belonging to the Bronze period. 



The earliest remains of the ass mentioned by Prof. Ruti- 

 meyer are those found at Chavannes and Noville, which, 

 however, were not connected with Pfahlbauten, and belonged 

 to post-Roman times. 



It is singular, that though remains of the horse have 

 been found in all the Pileworks, they are so rare that their 

 presence may almost be considered accidental : thus, Wangen 

 has only produced a single tooth ; Moosseedorf, a metatarsal 

 bone, which has been polished on one side; Robenhausen, a 

 single Os naviculare tarsi ; and Wauwyl, only a few bones, 

 which may all have belonged to a single individual. On the 

 other hand, when we come to the Bronze period, we find at 

 Nidau numerous bones of this species; so that, as far as 

 these slight indications go, the horse, even if present in the 

 Stone age, seems to have been rarer than at subsequent 

 periods. All the remains of this animal belonged ap- 

 parently to the domestic variety. 



Though he refers some bones to the wild boar, and 

 others to the domestic hog, yet Prof. Rutimeyer considers 

 that the greatest number of the remains of this genus 

 belong to a different race, which he calls Sus scrofa 

 palustris. This variety was, in his opinion, less powerful 

 and dangerous than the wild boar, the tusks being much 

 smaller in proportion; in fact, he describes it as having, 

 with the molar teeth of an ordinary full-grown wild boar^ 

 premolars, canines, and incisives resembling those of a young 



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