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Show 18 DR. J. E. G R A Y O N T H E SUIDAE. [Jan. 9, 3. That the domestic, and possibly the wild species have a great facility in breeding together, having fertile offspring. There are very few countries that have, or are presumed to have, a native race of Pigs, where some of the kinds are not kept in a more or less domestic state. This is even the case where the animal is regarded with disgust and never eaten as food, except by the lowest class of the inhabitants, as in India. "Wild Hogs abound in Dukhun, and the male attains to a very great size. I am not satisfied that there is any specific difference between the European and Asiatic Wild Hogs. Every village abounds in hogs. The Village H og is of the same colour as the wild animal, mostly a rusty black, and the only variations are slate-black or slate-brown ; but it is not above two-thirds of the size of the latter. Tail never curled or spirally twisted. They dispute with the Pariah dogs the possession of the offal matter thrown out of the houses, and are the public scavengers."-Sykes, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 11. " The Indian Wild Hog differs considerably from the German ; the head of the former is longer and more pointed, and the plane of the forehead straight, while it is concave in the European; the ears of the former are small and pointed, in the latter larger and not so erect. The Indian is altogether a more active-looking animal. The German has a stronger and heavier appearance. The same differences are perceptible in the domesticated individuals of the two countries."-Sykes, I. c. p. 30. In some of the islands of the Pacific the woods are stocked with wild swine that are the produce of the litter of one breeding sow that has been introduced. As an instance of the facility and rapidity with which the Pig may be completely naturalized and become a pest, one may mention N e w Zealand, where some of the pigs introduced by the colonists have escaped and their offspring have spread themselves over the country, and are now a pest to the colonial farmer and breeder of sheep, destroying the crops of the former, and following the ewes and eating the lambs as they are dropped on the sheep-walk. A reward of so much per head is paid for all the pigs that are destroyed in several parts of that colony. I have attempted to arrange the genera of Suidee in natural groups. All the genera are well defined, and, I believe, distinct. The only doubtful one is m y genus Centuriosus, which was established on an animal which is as yet only known in a domesticated state, and one that breeds with facility with the Domestic Pig of Europe, and the mules are fertile. The species of Pigs have been very much misunderstood. Pio-s belonging to very distinct genera have been considered varieties of the same species, or only domestic varieties of the C o m m o n Ho°\ The genera and species have been gradually unravelled. As an example, I may here observe that Desmarest regards Sus porcus(Potamochcerus porcus) as only a domestic variety of Sus scrofa. Fischer considers Sus koiropotamus (Potamochcerus larvatus) a synonym of Sus larvatus, the type of the genus Phacochcerus. |