d, deciduous or falling-out [milk] teeth.
IRISH GREYHOUND PIG. (After Richardson.)
The old “Irish Greyhound Pig,” of Richardson, may be taken as an example of one of the domestic races descended from the Wild Boar. Sometimes in this breed, as in the Normandy Pigs, a peculiar pendant, about three inches long and covered with bristles, is to be seen attached to the corner of the jaw, as in the accompanying figure.
The domesticated breeds of China and Siam have, among other characters, broader and stouter heads than those which are descended from the Wild Boar, and are best known to Englishmen under the form of the Chinese breed. They constitute the type of Sus indica, which is now so largely represented among the various European strains, and which is mostly due to the crossing of the two original stocks.
Both these breeds were brought under the dominion of man in a very remote age, and have varied in exact proportion to the care taken in selecting the various characters. Both are found in the pile-dwellings in the Swiss Lakes which belong to the Neolithic age, or to that period when the use of metal was unknown in Europe north of the Alps, and both were probably introduced from the East by the same race of herdsmen to whom we owe the domestic cattle, Horses, and Dogs, as well as the arts of gardening, farming, and spinning. The amount of change which has been produced by the art of man in modifying the original stock may be estimated from the [figure at the top of the preceding page].
THE SOLID-HOOFED BREED OF PIGS.—Among the most remarkable breeds of Pigs under domestication, the Solid-hoofed Pigs deserve special notice, because they show a persistent variation from the even-toed type. “From the time of Aristotle,” writes Mr. Darwin, “to the present time, solid-hoofed Swine have been occasionally observed in various parts of the world. Although this peculiarity is strongly inherited, it is hardly probable that all the animals with solid hoofs have descended from the same parents; it is more probable that the same peculiarity has reappeared at various times and places. Dr. Struthers has lately described and figured the structure of the feet; in both front and hind feet the distal phalanges of the two greater toes are represented by a single, great, hoof-bearing phalanx; and in the front feet, the middle phalanges are represented by a bone which is single towards the lower end, but bears two separate articulations towards the upper end.”
This singular modification is stated by Dr. Coues to be persistent in a Texas breed. So far as the hoof is concerned the animal is perfectly solid-ungulate. It is also perfectly “odd-toed” (or perissodactyle) in the terminal phalanges, which are joined together so as to form one single hoof-supporting bone, a of figure. Above this, however, the other two phalanges (b, c) remain separate, and are widely separated from each other by the intervention of a special ossicle (d). How far this departs from the normal type may be seen from the comparison of the figure with that of the foot of the Common Hog.
BONES OF PIG’S FOOT.