THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
eastward of that many other kinds have been named, some of 
which are doubtless descendants of introduced and once domes- 
tic stock. Thus the South Sea Islands got the black pigs found 
free and numerous on many of them by the first European 
navigators; already in New Zealand a wild race ranges the 
woods and affords good sport, as might our own southern 
razorbacks; and Nepal and Bhotan possess a half-wild pygmy 
race no larger than hares. The latest monographer reduces 
the whole list, however, to four typical species, of which three 
belong to certain Malayan islands, leaving all those of the 
mainland and far-eastern archipelagoes, from Great Britain 
to Japan and the Philippines, as varieties of the common wild 
hog (Sus scrofa). The brick-red, tassel-eared, playful river hogs 
of.southern Africa are scarcely separable. 
From this widespread and variable species the domestic pigs have been 
derived by processes of selective breeding and intermingling, such as have 
Domestic | produced so many other domestic races. The closely related 
Bigs: Javanese and other Oriental hogs have also been in domes- 
tication since antiquity; but other genera of swine than Sus seem incapable 
of adaptation to human service. It is a curious circumstance that while 
the young of all kinds of pigs are light-striped, it is very rare that such 
markings appear in domestic piglings; but feral races, reverted to the 
woods for a century or so, gradually get back to it. Domestic pigs also 
show a noticeable concavity of the face not seen in wild ones, and their 
tusks never grow very long. Much benefit accrued to European hogs by 
crossing them with imported boars of Siamese and Chinese stock. The 
most extraordinary of domestic swine is probably that Japanese ‘tmasked"’ 
breed which so much interested Darwin.™ 
The intelligence of pigs is far greater than one might expect from their 
appearance. Hunters have a high respect for their strategy when chased 
and scheming and fighting for their lives. From early times trained pigs 
have been among the trick animals of showmen, and as pets they have been 
good-tempered and perfectly cleanly. Some ‘‘educated”’ pigs have been 
credited with wonderful feats of reading, counting, selecting fortune-telling 
cards, and the like; but too much humbug has been mixed with this to let 
us judge by it of the animal's real mental capability. That it is by no 
means dull is shown by the readiness with which in southern Europe it is 
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