76 



DOMESTIC PIGS. 



Chap. III. 



side alone. Kichardson figures them on the gaunt old « Irish 

 Greyhound pig;" and Nathusius states that they occasionally 

 appear m all the long-eared races, but are not strictly inherited 

 for they occur or fail in animals of the same litter. 25 As no 

 wild pigs are known to have analogous appendages, we have 

 at present no reason to suppose that their appearance is due to 

 reversion ; and if this be so, we are forced to admit that some- 

 what complex, though apparently useless, structures may be 

 suddenly developed without the aid of selection. This case 

 perhaps throws some little light on the manner of appearance 

 of the hideous! fleshy protuberances, though of an essentially 

 different nature from the above-described appendages, on the 

 cheeks of the wart-hog or Phacochoerus Africanus. 



It is a remarkable fact that the boars of all domesticated 

 breeds have much shorter tusks than wild boars. Many facts 

 show that with all animals the state of the hair is much affected 

 by exposure to, or protection from, climate ; and as we see that 

 the state of the hair and teeth are correlated in Turkish doo-s 

 (other analogous facts will be hereafter given), may we not 

 venture to surmise that the reduction of the tusks in the do- 

 mestic boar is related to his coat of bristles being diminished 

 from living under shelter? On the other hand, as we shall 

 immediately see, the tusks and bristles reappear with feral 

 boars, which are no longer protected from the weather. It is 

 not surprising that the tusks should be more affected than the 

 other teeth; as parts developed to serve as secondary sexual 

 characters are always liable to much variation. 



It is a well-known fact that the young of wild European and 

 Indian pigs, 26 for the first six months, are longitudinally banded 

 with light-coloured stripes. This character generally disappears 

 under domestication. The Turkish domestic pigs, however, 

 have striped young, as have those of Westphalia, "whatever 

 may be their hue;" 27 whether these latter pigs belong to the 



25 Eudes-Deslongchamps, 'Memoires 

 de la Soc. Linn, de Normandie,' vol. vii., 

 1842, p. 41. Kichardson, 'Pigs, their 

 Origin, &c.,' 1847, p. 30. Nathusius, 

 'Die Kacen des Schweines,' 1860, s. 

 54. 



20 D. Johnson's ' Sketches of Indian 

 Field Sports,' p. 272. Mr. Crawford 



informs me that the same fact holds 

 good with the wild pigs of the Malay 

 peninsula. 



27 Foj. Turkish pigs, see Desmarest, 

 ' Mammalogie,' 1820, p. 391. For those 

 of Westphalia, see Kichardson 's ' Pigs, 

 their Origin,' &c, 1847, p. 41. 



