MAMMALIA. 44} 
proportionally greater and more complicated; the canines resembled most 
those of the peccaries; the skull, by its form, is intermediate between the 
damans and the hogs. It exhibits very large orbits, a character chiefly 
prominent among the timid rodents. Its size is supposed to have been 
about the same as that of the daman, which is among the smallest of the 
pachyderms. The only two species known belong to the eocene period, 
and to the British isles. 
The genus Microcherus shows a general resemblance with Hyracothe- 
rium in the structure of its teeth, but differs from it by the form of the 
posterior molars, and by the absence of a free space between the incisors 
and the two first molars. The genus is not yet sufficiently characterized. 
The only species known attained to the size of the European hedgehog. 
The genus Hyops is another American form, discovered in the same 
locality with Platygonus; that is, in the lead region of Illinois. It has been 
rather announced tothe scientific world than described. It bears very 
close affinities with the peccaries, and is on that account interesting, as pecca- 
ries of our days are confined on the same continent to more southern 
localities. . 
The genus Dicotyle (the peccaries) is characterized by the upper canines 
directed straight upwards, and projecting very little out of the mouth. The 
hind feet are deprived of external toes; the tail is absent, and on the 
back a glandular opening is observed, from which a fetid secretion is 
exuded. The metatarsal and metacarpal bones of their two greater toes are 
soldered together like those of the ruminants, to which they seem also 
related in possessing a stomach divided into several sacs. This genus is 
peculiar to the American continent, from Arkansas to Brazil, more abun- 
dant as we proceed from the north of that limit towards the south. JD. tor- 
quatus (the patira) or Mexican hog is the one met with in North America, 
as far north as Red River (Arkansas). Another (D. albirostris or labiatus) 
from Guiana, is represented on p/.111, fig. 3. The peccaries seem to have 
been more abundant in South America during the tertiary epoch than in 
our days, as five species are said to have left their remains in the caverns 
of Brazil. 
The genus Sus (the hogs) has twenty-four or twenty-eight molars or 
grinding teeth, of which the posterior are oblong with tuberculous crowns, 
and the anterior more or less compressed, and six incisors in each jaw. 
Each foot of the hog consists of two large middle toes armed with strong 
hoofs, and two much shorter lateral ones that hardly reach the ground. 
The incisors vary in number; the canines project from the mouth and 
curve upwards ; the snout terminates by a sort of truncated button fitted 
for turning up the earth. The wild hog, Sus scropha (pi. 111, fig. 6), is 
the parent stock of our domestic hog, Sus domesticus (pl. 111, fig. 5), and 
its varieties. The color is generally black; the ears are straight. It is 
found all over the surface of the globe ; its flesh is eaten by all except by 
Jews and Mahomedans. The eight following varieties are the most pro- 
minent ones. 1. The Hungarian race (Wallachia, Bosnia, and Moldavia), 
with very large ears and woolly bristles, greyish black, or yellowish red. 
645 
