CAPE BUSH-PIG— WEST AFRICAN BUSH-PIG 425 



CAPE BUSH -PIG- (Sus [Potamochcerus] choeropotamus). 



Bosch-vark of the Boers. Ingulubi of the Swazis and Zulus. 



The bush-pigs, or river-hogs, of Africa and Madagascar form a 

 peculiar group of swine characterised by having only 42, in place of 

 44, teeth, small tusks, and a large ridge-like prominence on each side 

 of the face, due to the presence of a ridge of bone on the sheath of the 

 tusk. The ears may be surmounted with tufts of long hair. The 

 various species are best distinguished by the character of their skulls, 

 colour forming a very uncertain guide. The Cape bush-pig, or bosch- 

 vark, is very generally gray, but the late Sir Andrew Smith stated that 

 " scarcely any two specimens of this species exhibit the same colours ; 

 some are a brownish black variegated with whife, and others are almost 

 entirely of a light reddish brown or rufous tint, without any white mark- 

 ings; indeed, such are the varieties that it is scarcely possible to say what 

 are the prevailing colours." In British Central Africa, where they have 

 been wrongly identified with the West African species, they are 

 invariably reddish. Height at shoulder about 3 1 inches ; weight, 3 5 lbs. 

 Lower tusks average 6 to 7 inches long, and a good specimen shot by 

 F. Vaughan Kirby has tusks protruding out of jaw 4|- inches. 

 Distribution. — South and South-East Africa. 



WEST AFRICAN BUSH-PIG or RED RIVER-HOG 



(Sus [Potamochcerus] porous). 



In this species the colour is always some shade of rufous, either 

 shining brownish red with a tinge of yellow, or dark reddish yellow 

 with black on the forehead, ears, and limbs, the mane of the back, part 

 of the margins of the ears, tips of the long tufts of hairs with which 

 they are surmounted, and streaks above and below the eyes white. 

 Distribution. — West Africa, from Angola to Senegambia, and eastwards 



to Monbuttu. 



Side?.' ^='sht. Locality. Owner. 



-23i 35 lbs. Shirfe River, British Central Dr. Percy Rendall. 



Africa 



