GOATS.
REMARKABLE VARIATIONS OF.

The breeds of the pig have recently been more closely studied, though much
still remains to be done, than those of almost any other domesticated
animal. This has been effected by Hermann von Nathusius in two admirable
works, especially in the later one on the Skulls of the several races, and
by Rutimeyer in his celebrated Fauna of the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings.
(3/1. Hermann von Nathusius 'Die Racen des Schweines' Berlin 1860; and
'Vorstudien fur Geschichte' etc. 'Schweineschadel' Berlin 1864. Rutimeyer
'Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten' Basel 1861.) Nathusius has shown that all the
known breeds may be divided into two great groups: one resembling in all
important respects and no doubt descended from the common wild boar; so
that this may be called the Sus scrofa group. The other group differs in
several important and constant osteological characters; its wild parent-
form is unknown; the name given to it by Nathusius, according to the law of
priority, is Sus indicus, of Pallas. This name must now be followed, though
an unfortunate one, as the wild aboriginal does not inhabit India, and the
best-known domesticated breeds have been imported from Siam and China.

First for the Sus scrofa breeds, or those resembling the common wild boar.
These still exist, according to Nathusius ('Schweineschadel' s. 75), in
various parts of central and northern Europe; formerly every kingdom (3/2.
Nathusius 'Die Racen des Schweines' Berlin 1860. An excellent appendix is
given with references to published and trustworthy drawings of the breeds
of each country), and almost every province in Britain, possessed its own
native breed; but these are now everywhere rapidly disappearing, being
replaced by improved breeds crossed with the S. indicus form. The skull in
the breeds of the S. scrofa type resembles, in all important respects, that
of the European wild boar; but it has become ('Schweineschadel' s. 63-68)