Chap. III. THEIR PARENTAGE. 67 



individuals of the two countries." We may therefore conclude 

 that the breeds of the Sus scrofa type have either descended 

 from, or been modified by crossing with, forms which may be 

 ranked as geographical races, but which are, according to some 

 naturalists, distinct species. 



Pigs of the 8us Indicus type are best known to Englishmen 

 under the form of the Chinese breed. The skull of 8. Indicus, 

 as described by Nathusius, differs from that of 8. scrofa in 

 several minor respects, as in its greater breadth and in some 

 details in the teeth ; but chiefly in the shortness of the lachry- 

 mal bones, in the greater width of the fore part of the palate- 

 bones, and in the divergence of the premolar teeth. It deserves 

 especial notice that these latter characters are not gained, even 

 in the least degree, by the domesticated forms of 8. scrofa. 

 After reading the remarks and descriptions given by Nathusius, 

 it seems to me to be merely playing with words to doubt 

 whether 8. Indicus ought to be ranked as a species ; for the 

 above-specified differences are more strongly marked than any 

 that can be pointed out between, for instance, the fox and the 

 wolf, or the ass and the horse. As already stated, 8. Indicus is 

 not known in a wild state ; but its domesticated forms, according 

 to Nathusius, come near to 8. vittatus of Java and some allied 

 species. A pig found wild in the Aru islands (Schweineschadel, 

 s. 169) is apparently identical with 8. Indicus; but it is doubtful 

 whether this is a truly native animal. The domesticated breeds 

 of China, Cochin-China, and Siam belong to this type. The 

 Koman or Neapolitan breed, the Andalusian, the Hungarian, and 

 the "Krause" swine of Nathusius, inhabiting south-eastern 

 Europe and Turkey, and having fine curly hair, and the small 

 Swiss " Biindtnerschwein " of Eiitimeyer, all agree in their 

 more important skull-characters with 8. Indicus, and, as is sup- 

 posed, have all been largely crossed with this form. Pigs of 

 this type have existed during a long period on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, for a figure (Schweineschadel, s. 142) closely 

 resembKng the existing Neapolitan pig has been found in the 

 buried city of Herculaneum. 



Eiitimeyer has made the remarkable discovery that there 

 lived contemporaneously in Switzerland, during the later Stone 

 or Neolithic period, two domesticated forms, the 8. scrofa, and 



f 2 



