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Show 362 DR. C I. FORSYTH MAJOR ON THE [Mar. 16, Society, and published in the ' Proceedings' for 1869, pp. 56, 57), to put some of the facts under discussion in their true light and to add some interesting particulars. Reinhardt draws attention to the fact that Prince Maurice of Nassau, in whose service Marcgrave was, kept animals, brought over from many countries. at his country-seat near Recife (Pernambuco), and that Marcgrave describes and sketches also several African Monkeys seen in Brazil (of which it is expressly stated that they came from the Guinea Coast). " H e " (Marcgrave) " had certainly never thought of saying that his Pig was a domestic animal, but only that in Brazil he had seen such a Pig, brought thither from Africa, and being quite tame-that is to say, doing no harm, but being of a placid, inoffensive nature." Reinhardt further on quotes from a Danish author, Monrad \ wdio describes the " Red and Black Boars " on the Gold Coast as being not fierce at all, their hunting being without danger, &c. I wish to add to Reinhardt's remarks some observations of my own bearing on the subject. No mention is made by Marcgrave of the cartilaginous tuberosities above the upper canines in the male, and neither does his otherwise good, though somewhat rough, w7oodcut show anything of the sort; apparently he had before him a female or a young male (perhaps he had seen only a single specimen) ; this circumstance, too, goes a great way to show that, in his time at least, the Pig was not reared in Brazil, and it would give a further illustration to his calling it "plane clcur." Schweinfurth2, when mentioning the Wild Boar of the Mon-buttu, which he considers to be the " Potamochcerus penicillatus," says that they are tameable up to a certain extent (" einen gewissen Grad von Zahmbarkeit an den Tag legen " ) ; King Munsa kept a number of them, half wild, in a sort of game-preserve near his residence. I believe the experiences with the West-African Potamochcerus in the Zoological Gardens are to the same effect. The individual, or the individuals, seen by Marcgrave were apparently the first brought over to Brazil ; but, from what later authors say, we might be inclined to infer that after his time the species was really reared in America. Erxleben (1777), whom Reinhardt quotes, was not the first to say that the Guinea Hog was found in great numbers in Brazil (" ubi hodie copiosissimus " ). The same statement had been already made by Hill (1752), Patrick Browne (1756)-both speaking of America generally,-as well as by Pallas (1766) and Buffon (1767); but from what these authors say, it seems not unlikely that a confusion was made with pigs introduced from Asia, an error against which P. L. S. Midler (Vollst. Natursystem) cautioned us as long ago as 1773. As to the introduction of the Pencilled Hog into England for 1 H. 0. MONRAD. Bidrag til en Skildringaf Guinea-kysten og dens Indbyggere og til en Beskrivelse over de danske Colonier paa denne kyst, samlecle under mit Ophold i Afrika i Aarene 1805 til 1809 .... Med en Fortale af C. Molbecb: Kjobenhavn, 1822. 8°. 2 Im Herzen von Afrika, ii. pp. 83, 532 (1874). |