36 MAMMALIA 



The Rev. Richard Taylor (in The Past and Present of New 

 Zealand, in 1868) states that: 



there are three kinds of pigs which have been naturalised, whether the 

 produce of the original pair left by Captain Cook, or from later importa- 

 tions it is impossible to say. The ordinary one, which has stocked the 

 forest, is black, with a very long snout, almost resembling that of a Tapir ; 

 this pig was probably the original one. The next is a grey one, commonly 

 known by the name of Tonga tapu, and may therefore be supposed to have 

 been thence derived. The third variety is generally of a reddish brown, 

 marked with lateral black or dark stripes, running the whole length of 

 the body. 



Taylor was neither a good observer, nor much of a naturalist, and 

 accepted a great deal of information without sifting its accuracy ; still 

 the above may be quite correct for the part of New Zealand which 

 he knew. 



Mr Robert GilUes, writing in 1877, says: "In 1848 (the year of 

 the settlement of Otago) wild pigs were very common on the site of 

 Dunedin." In 1854, he and a party killed 70 pigs at the back of 

 Flagstaff in two days. 



The long-pointed snout, long legs and non-descript colours of the true 

 wild pig showed them to be quite a different breed from the settlers' 

 imported pig. Their flesh tasted quite different from pork, being more 

 like venison than anj^hing else. 



Mr Jas. D. Drummond quotes Mr E. Hardcastle of Christchurch 

 on this subject: 



In most parts of the Dominion black is the commonest colour of wild 

 pigs, and he believes that the Berkshire probably was the dominant type 

 in the pigs of our early days. The red coat of the Tamworth type has 

 defied time. It has lost most of its lustre but he thinks that nobody can 

 doubt that the sandy, long-snouted wild pig has Tamworth blood in its 

 veins. 



Black pigs with a white stripe over the back or the shoulder were 

 plentiful in Canterbury. The markings still may be found in that 

 province and in other parts of the Dominion. 



" These pigs," Mr Hardcastle writes, " were ascribed to an original cross 

 between black pigs and white pigs, but there are in England at least two 

 breeds with those markings, and probably some of these were introduced 

 with other ancestors of our wild pigs. The Hampshire has a white belt 

 round its body, including the shoulder and the front-legs; the saddle- 

 back, or white-shouldered pig, which now is being brought under notice 

 in England, does not seem to have as much white as the Hampshire has." 



Mr E. C. d'Auvergne, formerly of Rangiora, and now of Waihoa 

 Forks, Waimate, South Canterbury, states that the late Captain 

 Forster , of Oxford , imported some white-shouldered pigs from England 



