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Show 360 DR. C. I. FORSYTH MA.lOR ON THE [Mar. 16, Asiatic Continent (especially China) and from the Philippines. These additions to our knowledge have rather strengthened my original views, to the effect that we shall in a near future be able to show the complete passage of Sus scrofa into Sus vittatus by intermediate forms, although one or two of Heude's continental species may for the present rank as such. The only characters of some importance, upon wdiich the claims of Potamochcerus to generic distinction rest are the curious apophyses which Flacourt, speaking of the Malagasy Boar, compared with horns l. Recent authors call these outgrowths fleshy warts ; but having had the opportunity of seeing the animal in the flesh-I am speaking of old males-I must say that Flacourt's term is much more to the point. They recall the osseous horn-like apophyses in some Tertiary Ungulates, as the Dinocerata and others. Of course, in the nude of Potamochcerus the underlying osseous nuclei are formed merely by the convex rugosity on the lateral parts of the nasals and by the outgrowth above the canine, reaching scarcely higher up than the upper contour of the skull. But the overlying " horn '"' is formed by a very resistant, cylindrical, cartilaginous callosity, part of which is generally cut away on the inner side, whilst the rest shrinks considerably in drying, so that the stuffed skin fails to give an adequate idea of this conformation in the living animal. Whether this is the beginning of a really osseous horn, or the remnant of such, I cannot say ; considering that we have to do with a specialized feature, one might prefer the former supposition. There are some tertiary Swine which by their dentition closely approach the Potamochcerus, but this part of their skull is still unknown. N o w this peculiar character exists, as I pointed out, only in the adult male, and it might therefore be doubted whether a sexual character justifies the establishing of a separate genus. Besides, the Sus verrucosus of Java, with its numerous varieties in Borneo, Celebes, the Philippines, Amboina, Ceram, and even, as it would seem, iu Cochinchina2, shows the beginning of a similar conformation in the large size of the apophysis above the canine, which is particularly well developed in the Celebes and Amboina form, where we have the beginning also of a rugosity on the nasals. Sus verrucosus approaches Potamochcerus besides as regards the broad zygomatic arches, which are swollen by underlying sinuses. The claims of Potamochcerus to generic distinction are hereby somewhat weakened. On the other hand, Sus verrucosus and Sus barbatus of Borneo are distinguished from the remaining members of the genus Sus by the very characteristic conformation of their lower canines ; the same character is met with already in Pliocene Boars of the Siwaliks and in the Sus of the Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno. So that if the 1 " Ces sangliers (principalement les masles) ont deux cornes a costez du nez, qui sont comme deux callositez." (Histoire de la grande Isle Madagascar composee par le Sieur De Flacourt: Paris, 1661.) * Heude, I. c. 1894, p. 219. |
