70 DOMESTIC PIGS. 



Chap. III. 



is the face furrowed, but thick folds of skin, which are harder 

 than the other parts, almost like the plates on the Indian rhino- 

 ceros, hang aboutthe shoulders and rump. It is coloured black, 

 with white feet, and breeds true. That it has long been domes- 

 ticated there can be little doubt; and this might have been 

 inferred even from the fact that its young are not longitudinally 

 striped ; for this is a character common to all the species in- 

 cluded within the genus Sus and the allied genera whilst in 

 their natural state. 11 Dr. Gray 12 has described the skull of 

 this animal, which he ranks not only as a distinct species, but 

 places it in a distinct section of the genus. JSTathusius, however, 

 after his careful study of the whole group, states positively 

 (Schweineschadel, s. 153-158) that the skull in all essential 

 characters closely resembles that of the short-eared Chinese 

 breed of the 8. Indicus type. Hence Nathusius considers the 

 Japan pig as only a domesticated variety of S. Indicus : if this 

 really be the case, it is a wonderful instance of the amount of 

 modification which can be effected under domestication. 



Formerly there existed in the central islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean a singular breed of pigs. These are described by the 

 Kev. D. Tyerman and G. Bennett 13 as of small size, hump- 

 backed, with a disproportionately long head, with short ears 

 turned backwards, with a bushy tail not more than two inches 

 in length, placed as if it grew from the back. Within half a 

 century after the introduction into these islands of European 

 and Chinese pigs, the native breed, according to the above 

 authors, became almost completely lost by being repeatedly 

 crossed with them. Secluded islands, as might have been 

 expected, seem favourable for the production or retention of 

 peculiar breeds; thus, in the Orkney Islands, the hogs have 

 been described as very small, with erect and sharp ears, and 

 "with an appearance altogether different from the hogs brought 

 from the south." 14 



Seeing how different the Chinese pigs, belonging to the Sus 

 Indicus type, are in their osteological characters and in external 



11 Sclater, in ' Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' from 1821 to 1829,' vol. i. p. 300. 

 Feb. 26th, 1861. 14 Eev. G. Low, ' Fauna Orcadensis,' 



12 ' Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' 1862, p. 13. p. 10. See also Dr. Hibbert's account 

 * 8 ' Journal of Voyages and Travels of the pig of the Shetland Islands. 



