3-074-531 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Zoological Society's Gardens: the Babiroussa family, 1883. 'We present a few sketches of the Babiroussas, a male and two females, with a young one, recently presented to the Society by Dr. F. H. Bauer. These animals, which are from Celebes, in the Malay Archipelago, have been placed temporarily in different stalls of the ostrich-house, on the north side of the gardens. The Babiroussa is a species of wild hog, peculiar to the islands of Eastern Asia, and remarkable, in the male animal, for the extraordinary growth and direction of the canine teeth. The upper pair of canine teeth, growing out through the upper jaw, curve backwards and upwards on the forehead, having somewhat the aspect of horns; while the lower canine teeth form a pair of crooked tusks in the under jaw. These teeth may be useful for defensive fighting, as a guard to the head, but could not serve for attack. The skull of a babiroussa, with the teeth fully developed, is in the possession of Mr. Bartlett, the able Superintendent of the Zoological Society's collection'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.