520 



The Descent of Man. 



Part II. 



tusks appear to have been specially modified to act as guards, 

 though no doubt they are to a certain extent used for this pur- 

 pose. But the wart-hog is not destitute of other special means 

 of protection, for it has, on each side of the face, beneath the 

 eyes, a rather stiff, yet flexible, cartilaginous, oblong pad 

 (fig. 67), which projects two or three inches outwards ; and 

 it appeared to Mr. Bartlett and myself, when viewing the living 

 animal, that these pads, when struck from beneath by the tusks 

 of an opponent, would be turned upwards, and would thus 

 admirably protect the somewhat prominent eyes. I may add, 

 on the authority of Mr. Bartlett, that these boars when fighting 

 stand directly face to face. 



Fig. 67. Head ot female Ethiopian wart-h<ig, from * Proc. Zool. Soc' IS69, shewing 

 the same characters as the male, though on a reduced scale. 



N.B. When the engraving was first mtide, 1 was under the impression that it repre- 

 sented the male. 



Jjastly, the African river-hog {Potrmiochnenis penicillatus) has a 

 hard cartilaginous knob on each side of the face beneath the 

 eyes, which answers to the flexible pad of the war1;-hog ; it has 

 also two bony prominences on the upper jaw above the nostrils. 

 A boar of this species in the Zoological Gardens recently broke 

 into the cage of the wart-hog. They fought all night long, and 

 were found in the morning much exhausted, but not seriously 

 wounded. It is a significant fact, as shewing the purpose of the 

 above-described projections and excrescences, that these were 

 covered with blood, and were scored and abraded in an extra- 

 ordinary manner. 



Althonuh the males of so many member.': of the jiic; family arc 



