AELIAN’S WART HOG 
had time to develop them properly, show unmistak- 
able traces of them. Now it cannot be doubted that 
we have to do here with a clear case of the inheritance 
of acquired characters. 
In South-East Africa the lengthy name of the wart 
hog is nothing less than Indhlovudawani. After this 
one may well reply to the general query of ‘‘ What’s ina 
name ?”’ with the answer, *‘ A good deal.” Though verna- 
cular names of beasts should be really vernacular and 
not pseudo-vernacular, like “the rude dog” for Canis 
vudts, there is a limit, and we propose to stick to wart 
hog in these pages. Representatives of the wart hogs 
have been exhibited in the Gardens fairly continuously 
since the year 1850 when the first example was received. 
Aelian’s wart hog was apparently first shown in 1861, 
when a specimen was deposited by her late Majesty, 
which had been given to her by that rather celebrated 
potentate the King of Ashantee. It appears that 
the wart hog is not bad eating. The late Dr. Crisp 
dissected one that had died suddenly at the Zoo, and 
cut off a chop for private consumption. It is not sur- 
prising to hear that he “was werry much like pig.” 
The doctor furthermore made the excellent suggestion 
on the strength of this banquet that a cross between 
the wart hog and the domestic pig might result in 
superior bacon, for the ribs of the Phacochoerus are 
especially thickly covered with meat. This and the 
other kinds of pigs possessed by the Zoological Society 
are housed in adjacent enclosures, so that their but 
slightly divergent characteristics can be readily com- 
pared by the visitor. The fat and depressed body of 
this pig contrasts with the leanish compressed body of 
the wild boar, the ancestor it is presumed of the bacon- 
producing porker. 
4 
Teme 65 F 
