The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 1

TABLE 2: NUMBER OF VERTEBRAE IN VARIOUS PIGS:

ENGLISH LONG-LEGGED MALE.

Dorsal 15. Lumbar 6. Dorsal plus Lumbar 21. Sacral 5. Total 26.

AFRICAN FEMALE.

Dorsal 13. Lumbar 6. Dorsal plus Lumbar 19. Sacral 5. Total 24.

CHINESE MALE.

Dorsal 15. Lumbar 4. Dorsal plus Lumbar 19. Sacral 4. Total 23.

WILD BOAR FROM CUVIER.

Dorsal 14. Lumbar 5. Dorsal plus Lumbar 19. Sacral 4. Total 23.

FRENCH DOMESTIC BOAR, FROM CUVIER.

Dorsal 14. Lumbar 5. Dorsal plus Lumbar 19. Sacral 4. Total 23.

Some semi-monstrous breeds deserve notice. From the time of Aristotle to the present time solid-hoofed swine have occasionally been 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 (3/24. 'Edinburgh New Philosoph. Journal' April 1863. See also De Blainville 'Osteographie' page 128 for various authorities on this subject.) 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. From other accounts it appears that an intermediate toe is likewise sometimes superadded.

(FIGURE 4. OLD IRISH PIG, with jaw appendages. (Copied from H.D. Richardson on Pigs.))

Another curious anomaly is offered by the appendages, described by M. Eudes-Deslongchamps as often characterizing the Normandy pigs. These appendages are always attached to the same spot, to the corners of the jaw; they are cylindrical, about three inches in length, covered with bristles, and with a pencil of bristles rising out of a sinus on one side: they have a cartilaginous centre, with two small longitudinal muscles they occur either symmetrically on both sides of the face or on one side alone. Richardson 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. (3/25. Eudes-Deslongchamps 'Memoires de la Soc. Linn. de Normandie' volume 7 1842 page 41. Richardson 'Pigs, their Origin, etc.' 1847 page 30. Nathusius 'Die Racen des Schweines' 1863 s. 54.) 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 a somewhat complex, though apparently useless, structure may be suddenly developed without the aid of selection.

It is a remarkable fact that the boars of all domesticated breeds have much shorter tusks than wild boars. Many facts show that with many 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 (3/26. D. Johnson 'Sketches of Indian Field Sports' page 272. Mr. Crawfurd informs me that the same fact holds good with the wild pigs of the Malay peninsula.), 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" (3/27. For Turkish pigs see Desmarest 'Mammalogie' 1820 page 391. For those of Westphalia see Richardson 'Pigs, their Origin, etc.' 1847 page 41.); whether these latter pigs belong to the same curly-haired race as 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 the back, have resumed this aboriginal character and produce longitudinally-striped young. This is likewise the case, at least occasionally, with the neglected pigs in the Zambesi settlement on the coast of Africa. (3/28. With respect to the several foregoing and following statements on feral pigs see Roulin in 'Mem. presentes par divers Savans a l'Acad.' etc. Paris tome 6 1835 page 326. It should be observed that his account does not apply to truly feral pigs; but to pigs long introduced into the country and living in a half- wild state. For the truly feral pigs of Jamaica see Gosse 'Sojourn in Jamaica' 1851 page 386; and Col Hamilton Smith in 'Nat. Library' volume 9 page 93. With respect to Africa see Livingstone 'Expedition to the Zambesi' 1865 page 153. The most precise statement with respect to the tusks of the West Indian feral boars is by P. Labat quoted by Roulin; but this author attributes the state of these pigs to descent from a domestic stock which he saw in Spain. Admiral Sulivan, R.N., had ample opportunities of observing the wild pigs on Eagle Islet in the Falklands; and he informs me that they resembled wild boars with bristly ridged backs and large tusks. The pigs which have run wild in the province of Buenos Ayres (Rengger 'Saugethiere' s. 331) have not reverted to the wild type. De Blainville 'Osteographie' page 132 refers to two skulls of domestic pigs sent from Patagonia 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." He refers also to the skin of a feral pig from North America, and says "il ressemble tout a fait a un petit sanglier, mais il est presque tout noir, et peut-etre un peu plus ramasse dans ses formes."

The common belief that all domesticated animals, when they run wild, revert completely to the character of their parent-stock, 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, namely, S. scrofa and indicus, have not been distinguished. The young, as we have just seen, reacquire their longitudinal stripes, and the boars invariably 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 from the amount of exercise which they are compelled to take in search of food. In Jamaica the feral pigs do not acquire the full size of the European wild boar, "never attaining a greater height than 20 inches at the shoulder." In various countries they reassume their original bristly covering, but in different degrees, dependent on the climate; thus, according to Roulin, the semi-feral pigs in the hot valleys of New Granada are very scantily clothed; whereas, on the Paramos, at the height of 7000 to 8000 feet, they acquire a thick covering of wool lying under the bristles, like that on the truly wild pigs of France. These pigs on the Paramos are small and stunted. The wild boar of India is said to have the bristles at the end of its tail arranged like the plumes of an arrow, whilst the European boar has a simple tuft; and it is a curious fact that many, but not all, of the feral pigs in Jamaica, derived from a Spanish stock, have a plumed tail. (3/29. Gosse 'Jamaica' page 386 with a quotation from Williamson 'Oriental Field Sports.' Also Col. Hamilton Smith in 'Naturalist Library' volume 9 page 94.) With respect to colour, feral pigs generally revert to that of the wild boar; but in certain parts of S. America, as we have seen, some of the semi-feral pigs have a curious white band across their stomachs; and in certain other hot places the pigs are red, and this colour has likewise occasionally been observed in the feral pigs of Jamaica. From these several facts we see that with pigs when feral there is a strong tendency to revert to the wild type; but that this tendency is largely governed by the nature of the climate, amount of exercise, and other causes of change to which they have been subjected.

The last point worth notice is that we have unusually good evidence of breeds of pigs now keeping perfectly true, which have been formed by the crossing of several distinct breeds. The Improved Essex pigs, for instance, breed very true; but there is no doubt that they largely owe their present excellent qualities to crosses originally made by Lord Western with the Neapolitan race, and to subsequent crosses with the Berkshire breed (this also having been improved by Neapolitan crosses), and likewise, probably, with the Sussex breed. (3/30. S. Sidney's edition of 'Youatt on the Pig' 1860 pages 7, 26, 27, 29, 30.) In breeds thus formed by complex crosses, the most careful and unremitting selection during many generations has been found to be indispensable. Chiefly in consequence of so much crossing, some well-known breeds have undergone rapid changes; thus, according to Nathusius (3/31. 'Schweineschadel' s 140.), the Berkshire breed of 1780 is quite different from that of 1810; and, since this latter period, at least two distinct forms have borne the same name.

CATTLE.

Domestic cattle are certainly the descendants of more than one wild form, in the same manner as has been shown to be the case with our dogs and pigs. Naturalists have generally made two main divisions of cattle: the humped kinds inhabiting tropical countries, called in India Zebus, to which the specific name of Bos indicus has been given; and the common non-humped cattle, generally included under the name of Bos taurus. The humped cattle were domesticated, as may be seen on the Egyptian monuments, at least as early as the twelfth dynasty, that is 2100 B.C. They differ from common cattle in various osteological characters, even in a greater degree, according to Rutimeyer (3/32. 'Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten' 1861 s. 109, 149, 222. See also Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 'Mem. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat.' tome 10 page 172; and his son Isidore in 'Hist. Nat. Gen.' tome 3 page 69. Vasey in his 'Delineations of the Ox Tribe' 1851 page 127, says the zebu has four, and common ox five, sacral vertebrae. Mr. Hodgson found the ribs either thirteen or fourteen in number; see a note in 'Indian Field' 1858 page 62.) than do the fossil and prehistoric European species, namely, Bos primigenius and longifrons, from each other. They differ, also, as Mr. Blyth (3/33. 'The Indian Field' 1858 page 74 where Mr. Blyth gives his authorities with respect to the feral humped cattle. Pickering also in his 'Races of Man' 1850 page 274 notices the peculiar grunt-like character of the voice of the humped cattle.), who has particularly attended to this subject, remarks, in general configuration, in the shape of their ears, in the point where the dewlap commences, in the typical curvature of their horns, in their manner of carrying their heads when at rest, in their ordinary variations of colour, especially in the frequent presence of "nilgau-like markings on their feet," and "in the one being born with teeth protruding through the jaws, and the other not so." They have different habits, and their voice is entirely different. The humped cattle in India "seldom seek shade, and never go into the water and there stand knee-deep, like the cattle of Europe." They have run wild in parts of Oude and Rohilcund, and can maintain themselves in a region infested by tigers. They have given rise to many races differing greatly in size, in the presence of one or two humps, in length of horns, and other respects. Mr. Blyth sums up emphatically that the humped and humpless cattle must be considered as distinct species. When we consider the number of points in external structure and habits, independently of important osteological differences, in which they differ from each other; and that many of these points are not likely to have been affected by domestication, there can hardly be a doubt, notwithstanding the adverse opinion of some naturalists, that the humped and non-humped cattle must be ranked as specifically distinct.

The European breeds of humpless cattle are numerous. Professor Low enumerates 19 British breeds, only a few of which are identical with those on the Continent. Even the small Channel islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Alderney possess their own sub-breeds (3/34. Mr. H.E. Marquand in 'The Times' June 23, 1856.); and these again differ from the cattle of the other British islands, such as Anglesea, and the western isles of Scotland. Desmarest, who paid attention to the subject, describes 15 French races, excluding sub-varieties and those imported from other countries. In other parts of Europe there are several distinct races, such as the pale-coloured Hungarian cattle, with their light and free step, and enormous horns sometimes measuring above five feet from tip to tip (3/35. Vasey 'Delineations of the Ox-Tribe' page 124. Brace 'Hungary' 1851 page 94. The Hungarian cattle descend according to Rutimeyer 'Zahmen Europ. Rindes' 1866 s. 13 from Bos primigenius.): the Podolian cattle also are remarkable from the height of their fore-quarters. In the most recent work on Cattle (3/36. Moll and Gayot 'La Connaissance Gen. du Boeuf' Paris 1860. Fig. 82 is that of the Podolian breed.), engravings are given of fifty-five European breeds; it is, however, probable that several of these differ very little from each other, or are merely synonyms. It must not be supposed that numerous breeds of cattle exist only in long-civilised countries, for we shall presently see that several kinds are kept by the savages of Southern Africa.

[With respect to the parentage of the several European breeds, we already know much from Nilsson's Memoir (3/37. A translation appeared in three parts in the 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 2nd series volume 4 1849.), and more especially from Rutimeyer's works and those of Boyd Dawkins. Two or three species or forms of Bos, closely allied to still living domestic races, have been found in the more recent tertiary deposits or amongst prehistoric remains in Europe. Following Rutimeyer, we have: Bos primigenius.

This magnificent, well known species was domesticated in Switzerland during the Neolithic period; even at this early period it varied a little, having apparently been crossed with other races. Some of the larger races on the Continent, as the Friesland, etc., and the Pembroke race in England, closely resemble in essential structure B. primigenius, and no doubt are its descendants. This is likewise the opinion of Nilsson. Bos primigenius existed as a wild animal in Caesar's time, and is now semi-wild, though much degenerated in size, in the park of Chillingham; for I am informed by Professor Rutimeyer, to whom Lord Tankerville sent a skull, that the Chillingham cattle are less altered from the true primigenius type than any other known breed. (3/38. See also Rutimeyer 'Beitrage pal. Gesch. der Wiederkauer' Basel 1865 s. 54.)

Bos trochoceros.

This form is not included in the three species above mentioned, for it is now considered by Rutimeyer to be the female of an early domesticated form of B. primigenius, and as the progenitor of his frontosus race. I may add that specific names have been given to four other fossil oxen, now believed to be identical with B. primigenius. (3/39. Pictet 'Palaeontologie' tome 1 page 365 2nd edition. With respect to B. trochoceros see Rutimeyer 'Zahmen Europ. Rindes' 1866 s. 26.)

Bos longifrons (or brachyceros) of Owen.

This very distinct species was of small size, and had a short body with fine legs. According to Boyd Dawkins (3/40. W. Boyd Dawkins on the British Fossil Oxen 'Journal of the Geolog. Soc.' August 1867 page 182. Also 'Proc. Phil. Soc. of Manchester' November 14, 1871 and 'Cave Hunting' 1875 page 27, 138.) it was introduced as a domesticated animal into Britain at a very early period, and supplied food to the Roman legionaries. (3/41. 'British Pleistocene Mammalia' by W.B. Dawkins and W.A. Sandford 1866 page 15.) Some remains have been found in Ireland in certain crannoges, of which the dates are believed to be from 843-933 A.D. (3/42. W.R. Wilde 'An Essay on the Animal Remains, etc. Royal Irish Academy' 1860 page 29. Also 'Proc. of R. Irish Academy' 1858 page 48.) It was also the commonest form in a domesticated condition in Switzerland during the earliest part of the Neolithic period. Professor Owen (3/43. 'Lecture: Royal Institution of G. Britain' May 2, 1856 page 4. 'British Fossil Mammals' page 513.) thinks it probable that the Welsh and Highland cattle are descended from this form; as likewise is the case, according to Rutimeyer, with some of the existing Swiss breeds. These latter are of different shades of colour from light- grey to blackish-brown, with a lighter stripe along the spine, but they have no pure white marks. The cattle of North Wales and the Highlands, on the other hand, are generally black or dark-coloured.

Bos frontosus of Nilsson.

This species is allied to B. longifrons, and, according to the high authority of Mr. Boyd Dawkins, is identical with it, but in the opinion of some judges is distinct. Both co-existed in Scania during the same late geological period (3/44. Nilsson in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 1849 volume 4 page 354.), and both have been found in the Irish crannoges. (3/45. See W.R. Wilde ut supra; and Mr. Blyth in 'Proc. Irish Academy' March 5, 1864.) Nilsson believes that his B. frontosus may be the parent of the mountain cattle of Norway, which have a high protuberance on the skull between the base of the horns. As Professor Owen and others believe that the Scotch Highland cattle are descended from his B. longifrons, it is worth notice that a capable judge (3/46. Laing 'Tour in Norway' page 110.) has remarked that he saw no cattle in Norway like the Highland breed, but that they more nearly resembled the Devonshire breed.]

On the whole we may conclude, more especially from the researches of Boyd Dawkins, that European cattle are descended from two species; and there is no improbability in this fact, for the genus Bos readily yields to domestication. Besides these two species and the zebu, the yak, the gayal, and the arni (3/47. Isid. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 'Hist. Nat. Gen.' tome 3, 96.) (not to mention the buffalo or genus Bubalus) have been domesticated; making altogether six species of Bos. The zebu and the two European species are now extinct in a wild state. Although certain races of cattle were domesticated at a very ancient period in Europe, it does not follow that they were first domesticated here. Those who place much reliance on philology argue that they were imported from the East. (3/48. Idem tome 3 pages 82, 91.) It is probable that they originally inhabited a temperate or cold climate, but not a land long covered with snow; for our cattle, as we have seen in the chapter on Horses, have not the instinct of scraping away the snow to get at the herbage beneath. No one could behold the magnificent wild bulls on the bleak Falkland Islands in the southern hemisphere, and doubt about the climate being admirably suited to them. Azara has remarked that in the temperate regions of La Plata the cows conceive when two years old, whilst in the much hotter country of Paraguay they do not conceive till three years old; "from which fact," as he adds, "one may conclude that cattle do not succeed so well in warm countries." (3/49. 'Quadrupedes du Paraguay' tome 2 page 360.)

Bos primigenius and longifrons have been ranked by nearly all palaeontologists as distinct species; and it would not be reasonable to take a different view simply because their domesticated descendants now intercross with the utmost freedom. All the European breeds have so often been crossed both intentionally and unintentionally, that, if any sterility had ensued from such unions, it would certainly have been detected. As zebus inhabit a distant and much hotter region, and as they differ in so many characters from our European cattle, I have taken pains to ascertain whether the two forms are fertile when crossed. The late Lord Powis imported some zebus and crossed them with common cattle in Shropshire; and I was assured by his steward that the cross-bred animals were perfectly fertile with both parent-stocks. Mr. Blyth informs me that in India hybrids, with various proportions of either blood, are quite fertile; and this can hardly fail to be known, for in some districts (3/50. Walther 'Das Rindvieh' 1817 s. 30.) the two species are allowed to breed freely together. Most of the cattle which were first introduced into Tasmania were humped, so that at one time thousands of crossed animals existed there; and Mr. B. O'Neile Wilson, M.A., writes to me from Tasmania that he has never heard of any sterility having been observed. He himself formerly possessed a herd of such crossed cattle, and all were perfectly fertile; so much so, that he cannot remember even a single cow failing to calve. These several facts afford an important confirmation of the Pallasian doctrine that the descendants of species which when first domesticated would if crossed have been in all probability in some degree sterile, become perfectly fertile after a long course of domestication. In a future chapter we shall see that this doctrine throws some light on the difficult subject of Hybridism.

I have alluded to the cattle in Chillingham Park, which, according to Rutimeyer, have been very little changed from the Bos primigenius type. This park is so ancient that it is referred to in a record of the year 1220. The cattle in their instincts and habits are truly wild. They are white, with the inside of the ears reddish-brown, eyes rimmed with black, muzzles brown, hoofs black, and horns white tipped with black. Within a period of thirty-three years about a dozen calves were born with "brown and blue spots upon the cheeks or necks; but these, together with any defective animals, were always destroyed." According to Bewick, about the year 1770 some calves appeared with black ears; but these were also destroyed by the keeper, and black ears have not since reappeared. The wild white cattle in the Duke of Hamilton's park, where I have heard of the birth of a black calf, are said by Lord Tankerville to be inferior to those at Chillingham. The cattle kept until the year 1780 by the Duke of Queensberry, but now extinct, had their ears, muzzle, and orbits of the eyes black. Those which have existed from time immemorial at Chartley, closely resemble the cattle at Chillingham, but are larger, "with some small difference in the colour of the ears." "They frequently tend to become entirely black; and a singular superstition prevails in the vicinity that, when a black calf is born, some calamity impends over the noble house of Ferrers. All the black calves are destroyed." The cattle at Burton Constable in Yorkshire, now extinct, had ears, muzzle, and the tip of the tail black. Those at Gisburne, also in Yorkshire, are said by Bewick to have been sometimes without dark muzzles, with the inside alone of the ears brown; and they are elsewhere said to have been low in stature and hornless. (3/51. I am much indebted to the present Earl of Tankerville for information about his wild cattle; and for the skull which was sent to Prof. Rutimeyer. The fullest account of the Chillingham cattle is given by Mr. Hindmarsh, together with a letter by the late Lord Tankerville, in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' volume 2 1839 page 274. See Bewick 'Quadrupeds' 2nd edition 1791 page 35 note. With respect to those of the Duke of Queensberry see Pennant 'Tour in Scotland' page 109. For those of Chartley, see Low 'Domesticated Animals of Britain' 1845 page 238. For those of Gisburne see Bewick 'Quadrupeds' and 'Encyclop. of Rural Sports' page 101.)