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Show 68 DOMESTIC PIGS. CHAP. Ill. the S. scrofa palustris or Torfschwein. Riitimeyer perceived that the latter approached the Eastern breeds, and, according to N athusius, it certainly belongs to the S. Indica group; but Hutimeyer has subsequently shown that it differs in some wellmarked characters. This author was formerly convinced that his Torfschwein exi ted as a wild animal during the first part of tho Stone period, and was domesticated during a later part of the same period.5 Nathusius, whilst he fully admits the curious fact first observed by Riitimeyer, that the bones of domesticated and wild animals can be distinguished by their different aspect, yet, from special difficulties in the case of the bones of the pig (Schweineschadel, s. 117), is not convinced of the truth of this conclusion; and Riitimeyer himself seems now to feel some doubt. As the 'rorfschwein was domesticated at so early a period, and as its remains have been found in several parts of Europe, belonging to various historic and prehistoric ages,6 arid as closely allied forms still exist in Hungary and on the shores of the Mediterranean, one is led to suspect that the wild S. Indica formerly ranged from Europe to China, in the same manner as S. sarofa now ranges from Europe to Hindostan. Or, as Riitimeyer apparently suspects, a third allied species may formerly have lived in Europe and Ea tern Asia. Several breeds, differing in the proportions of the body, in the length of the ears, in the nature of the hair, in colour, &c., come under the S. Indica type. Nor is this surprising, considering how ancient the domestication of this form has been both in Europe and in China. In this latter country the date i believe~ by an eminent Chinese scholar 7 to go back at least 4900 years from the present time. 'rhis same scholar alludes to the existence of many local varieties of the pig in China; and at the present time the Chinese take extraordinary pains in feeding and tending their pigs, not even allowing them to walk from place to place. 8 Hence the Chinese breed, as N athusius has remarked/ displays in an eminent degree the!!( characters of a highly-cultivated race, and hence, no doubt, its 5 'Pfuhlbauten,' s. 163 ct passim. 6 See Riitimeyer' s N e~c Boitrage, .... Torfschwoine, Verh. Naturfur. Gesell. in Basel, iv. i., 1865, s. 139. 7 tan. Julien, quoted by Do Blain-ville, ' Osteographie,' p. 163. 8 Richardson, • Pigs, their Origin,' &c., p. 26. 9 'Die Racon des Schweines,' s. 47, 64. CHAP. III. THEIR VARIATION. 69 high v~lue in the improvement of our European breeds. N athusms makes a remarkable statement (Schweineschadel, s. 138), that the infusion .of the ~nd, or even of the tf;rtb, part of the blood of S. Indica into a breed of S. scrofa, is sufficient plainly to modify the skull of the latter species. This singular fact may perhaps be . accounted for by several of the chief distinctive characters of S. Indica, such as the shortness of the lachrymal bones, ~c., being common to several of the species of the genus; for m crosses the characters which are common to man! . species apparently tend to be prepotent over those appertammg to only a few species. The Japan pig (S. pliciceps of Gray), which has been recently exhibited in the Zoological Gardens, has an extraordinary appearance from its short head, broad forehead and nose, great fle~hy e~rs, and deeply furrowed skin. The following woodcut IS copwd from that given by Mr. Bartlett.1o Not only Fig. Z. - Ilcad of Japan or Masked Pig. (Copied from Mr. Bartlett's paper in Proc. Zoolog. Soc. 1 61, p. 2G3.) JO • Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' 1861, p. 263. |