424 On a new form of the Hog kind or Suidce. [May, 



to the general, will be largely suggestive to the instructed reader, and 

 at the same time convey to the latter more information than he would 

 obtain from five times the space occupied with popular description 

 merely. A description of the popular kind I will supply presently ; 

 but in the meanwhile I must proceed distinctly to state the grounds 

 upon which I suppose the Pigmy Hog to represent a new form among 

 the animals of its kind. My books are few for reference, and my ma- 

 terials scanty for examination ; but, having made the best use in my 

 power of both, I shall not hesitate to tender to the Society the results 

 of my investigation of a new and most rare species in that shape which 

 appears to me most calculated to stimulate further research, reserving 

 for a future report any additional information I may myself obtain in 

 correction or confirmation of my present views ; for I am entirely of 

 the opinion of the late able institutor of our journal, viz. that it is 

 designed as a prompt record of current facts and suggestions, to be 

 stated as made, and to be corrected with recurring opportunity. 



Mr. Gray, in his recent and excellent catalogue of the immense stores 

 of the British museum states that there are five genera of the Porcine 

 family, or Sus, Dicotyles, Babirussa, Choiropotamus and Phacochserus. 

 Of tl ese I regret that I have no means of satisfactory reference for 

 ChoLopotamus. But it and Phacochserus are exotic forms not easily 

 mistaken, and I apprehend cannot comprehend our present subject ; 

 nor can Babirussa, though an insular Indian type ; for its characteris- 

 tics are well known. There remain only Sus and Dicotyles, or the 

 Hogs proper and the Pecary hogs ; and, that our animal belongs to 

 neither of these, but is an interesting intermediate link between them, 

 will I think be at once apparent from my generic definition, or from 

 that and what I shall now add thereto relative to the organization and 

 habits of the Pigmy Hog. My materials for description consist of a 

 male of the species, young but sufficiently grown to indicate its fixed 

 characters, and fresh but deprived of its entrails. I have had its skull 

 extracted and have compared carefully its general form and its cranium 

 with those of the tame and of the wild hog and of their young, and I 

 have studied all these under the guidance of Cuvier and his commenta- 

 tors as well as of the general zoology of Shaw.* As the result of these 



* Regne animal, Vol. III. pp. 330, 334 and 401,414 ; General Zoology II. 458, 470, 

 and Regne animal, V. pp. 287, 290. 



