OCR Text |
Show 76 DOMESTIC PIGS. c uu. m. side alone. Hichardson figures them on the gaunt old " Irish Greyhound pig ;" and Nathusius states that they occasionally appear in all the long-eared races, but are not strictly inherited, for they occur or fail in animals of the same litter.25 As no wild pigs are known to have analogous appendages, we have at present no reason to suppose that their appearance is due to reversion; and if this be so, we are forced to admit that somewhat complex, though apparently useless, structures may be suddenly developed without the aid of selection. This case perhaps throws some little light on the manner of appearanee of the hideous fleshy protuberances, though of an essentially different nature from the above-described appendages, on the cheeks of the wart-hog or Phascoc:hoorus Africanus. It is a remarkable fact that the boars of all domesticated breeds have much shorter tusks than wild boars. Many facts show that with all animals the state of the hair is much affected by exposure to, or protection from, climate ; and as we see that the state of the hair and teeth are correlated in Turkish dogs (other analogous facts will be hereafter given), may we not venture to surmise that the reduction of the tusks in the domestic boar is related to his coat of bristles being diminished from living under shelter? On the other hand, as we shall immediately see, the tusks and bristles reappear with feral boars, which are no longer protected from the weather. It is not surprising that the tusks should be more affected than the other teeth ; as parts developed to serve as secondary sexual characters are always liable to much variation. It is a well-known fact that the young of wild European and Indian pigs, 26 for the first six months, are longitudinally banded with light-coloured stripes. This character generally disappears under domestication. The Turkish domestic pigs, however, have striped young, as have those of Westphalia, "whatever may be their hue ;" 27 whether these latter pigs belong to the 25 Euues-Deslongcltnmps, 'Mcmoires de la Soc. Linn. de Normnndi ,' vol. vii., 1842, p. 41. Richardson, ' I igs, their Origin, &c.,' 1847, p. 30. Nuthusius, ' Die Raccu des Schweincs,' 1SGO, s. 54:. 2fi D. Johnson's 'Rketchcs of Inuian Field Sports,' p. 272. Mr. CrawfUI·d informs me thnt tho same fact holds good with the wild pigs of tho Malny peninsula. v ·For Turkish pigs, see Dcsmarcst, 'Mammalogio,' 1820, p. 3!)1. For tboso of Westphalia, see Hichardson's ' Pigs, their Origin,' &c., 1 4:7, p. 41. CHAP. III. THEIR CHARACTER WHEN FERAL. 77 same curly-haired race with the Turkish swine, I do not know. The pigs which have run wild in Jamaica and the semi-feral pigs of New Granada, both those which are black and those which are black with a white band across the stomach, often extending over th0 back, have resumed this aboriginal character and ptoduce longitudinally-striped young. This is likewise the case, at least occasionally, with the neglected pigs in the Zambesi settlement on the coast of Africa.28 The common belief that all domesticated animals, when they run wild, revert completely to the character of their parentstock, is chiefly founded, as far as I can discover, on feral pigs. But even in this case the belief is not grounded on sufficient evidence ; for the two main types of S. scrofa and Indica have never been distinguished in a feral state. The young, as we have just seen, reacquire their longitudinal stripes, and the boars in variably reassume their tusks. They revert also in the general shape of their bodies, and in the length of their legs and muzzles, to the state of the wild animal, as might have been expected ~rom the amount of exercise which they are compelled to take m se~rch of food. In Jamaica the feral pigs do not acquire the fu~ Size of the E~ropean wild boar, "never attaining a greater height than 20 mches at the shoulder." In various countries they reassume their original bristly covering, but in different 28 With respect to the several foregoing nnd followin g statements on feral P!gs, see Roulin, in 'Mcm. prescntes par d1vers Savans a l'Acad.,' &c., Paris, tom. vi., 1835, p. 326. It should bo observed ~bat ~s account docs not apply to truly ~eral p1gs ; but to pigs long introduced mto thfl country and living in a halfwild ~tate. For the truly feral pigs of J amaiCa, see Gosse's 'Sojourn in J amaica,' 1851, p. 386; and Col. Ha~.i..lton Smith, in 'Nat. Library,' vol. IX. p. 93. With respect to Africa see Livingstone's 'Expedition to th~ Zambesi,' 1865, p. 153. 'fhe most precise statement with respect to tbe tusks of the West Indian feral boars is by. P. Labat (quoted by Roulin) ; but th1s author attributes the state of these pigs to descent from a domestic stock which ho saw in Spain. Admiral Sulivun, R.N., bad ample opportunities of observing the wild pigs on Eagle Islet in the Falklands ; anu he informs me that they resembled wild boars with bristly ridged backs and large tusks. 'l'he pigs which have run wild in the ~r~vince . of ~uenos Ayres (Rengger, Saugetlnere, s. 331) havo not reverted to the wild type. De Blainville (' Osteograpbie,' p. 132) refers to two skulls of domestic pigs sent from Pata.,.onia by Al. d'Orbigny, and he states that they have the occipital elevation of the wild European boar, but that the head altogether is " plus courte et plus ramassee.'' Ho refers, also, to the skin of a feral pig from North America, and says, ,, il ressemble tout a fait a un petit sanglier, muis il est presque tout noir et pout-etre un peu plus ramassc dan~ ses formes." |