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, (Suidae Sus of the ancients and Linnæus,) according to Cuvier, belongs to "the class, order , genus or , having on each foot two large principal toes shod with stout hoofs, and two lateral toes much shorter and scarcely touching the earth; the incisors variable in number, the lower incisors all levelled forwards; the canines projected from the mouth and recurved upwards; the muzzle terminated by a truncated snout fitted for turning up the ground; the stomach but little divided; the body square and thick, and more or less covered with bristles and hairs; the neck strong and muscular; the legs short and stout." (Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, vol. iii.)

The suidæ are robust and massive in their form, low in the limbs, flat-sided, with immense muscular development in the neck and fore-quarters. The head is wedge-shaped, with an elongated snout, terminating in a round or oval disc of cartilage, called in common language the button; this disc is pierced by the nostrils, and possesses great power of mobility, being supplied by several strong muscles; it is, moreover, strengthened and supported by a small extra bone, as in the instance of the mole also, and is used with great facility as an instrument for ploughing up the ground in quest of roots for food. The lower jaw is deep and strong, and the symphysis of the chin is completely ossified, and not, as in ruminants, united by suture. The mouth is wide, opening to a degree almost unparallelled among terrestrial mammalia. The jaws are armed with tusks, which grow to a large size, pass from between the lips, and are weapons of tremendous effect; the tusks of the lower jaw advance before those of the upper, which turn obliquely upwards and outwards. In the peccaries, the tusks are but little developed;