Chap. III. 



THEIR CHARACTER WHEN FERAL. 



77 



same curly-haired race with the Turkish swine, I do not know. 

 The pigs which have run wild in Jamaica and the semi-feral 

 pigs of New Granada, both those which are black and those 

 which are black with a white band across the stomach, often 

 extending over the back, have resumed this aboriginal character 

 and produce longitudinally-striped young. This is likewise the 

 case, at least occasionally, with the neglected pigs in the Zam- 

 besi settlement on the coast of Africa. 28 



The common belief that all domesticated animals, when they 

 run wild, revert completely to the character of their parent- 

 stock, is chiefly founded, as far as I can discover, on feral pigs. 

 But even in this case the belief is not grounded on sufficient 

 evidence ; for the two main types of 8. scrofa and Indieus have 

 never been distinguished in a feral state. The young, as we 

 have just seen, reacquire their longitudinal stripes, and the boars 

 invariably reassume their tusks. They revert also in the general 

 shape of their bodies, and in the length of their legs and muzzles, 

 to the state of the wild animal, as might have been expected 

 from the amount of exercise which they are compelled to take 

 in search of food. In Jamaica the feral pigs do not acquire the 

 full size of the European wild boar, " never attaining a greater 

 height than 20 inches at the shoulder." In various countries 

 they reassume their original bristly covering, but in different 



28 With respect to the several fore- 

 going and following statements on feral 

 pigs, see Roulin, in ' Mem. presented par 

 divers Savans a l'Acad.,' &c, Paris, torn, 

 vi., 1835, p. 326. It should be observed 

 that bis account does not apply to truly 

 feral pigs ; but to pigs long introduced 

 into the country and living in a half- 

 wild state. For the truly feral pigs 

 of Jamaica, see Gosse's ' Sojourn in 

 Jamaica,' 1851, p. 386 ; and Col. 

 Hamilton Smith, in ' Nat. Library,' 

 vol. ix. p. 93. With respect to Africa, 

 see Livingstone's 'Expedition to the 

 Zambesi,' 1865, p. 153. The most 

 precise statement with respect to the 

 tusks of the West Indian feral boars is 

 by P. Labat (quoted by Roulin) ; but 

 this author attributes the state of these 

 pigs to descent from a domestic stock 

 which he saw in Spain. Admiral Sulivan, 



R.N., had ample opportunities of ob- 

 serving the wild pigs on Eagle Islet in 

 the Falklands ; and he informs me that 

 they resembled wild boars with bristly 

 ridged backs and large tusks. The 

 pigs which have run wild in the 

 province of Buenos Ayres (Rengger, 

 ' Saugethiere,' s. 331) have not reverted 

 to the wild type. De Blainville (' Osteo- 

 graphie,' p. 132) refers to two skulls of 

 domestic pigs sent from Patagonia by 

 Al. d'Orbigny, and he states that they 

 have the occipital elevation of the wild 

 European boar, but that the head 

 altogether is "plus courte et plus 

 ramassee." He refers, also, to the skin 

 of a feral pig from North America, and 

 says, " il ressemble tout a fait a ua petit 

 sanglier, mais il est presque tout noir, 

 et peut-etre un peu plus ramasse' dans 

 ses formes." 



