TAPIRUS. = 105 
with in the mountainous interior, where the forests are of smaller extent or give place to 
open savanas, or to tracts of pines or oaks—virgin forest or older tracts of second-growth 
woods being apparently essential to their economy. During the whole of our stay in 
Guatemala we were very unfortunate in never being able to obtain a specimen ourselves, 
nor were our native hunters more successful. We first found ourselves in their haunts 
when spending a few days at Yzabal, the port of Guatemala, situated on the lake of the 
same name. Our morning excursions in pursuit of birds took us in a canoe along the 
shores of the lake, and into the small creeks which entered the forest at various places. 
On the muddy banks of these creeks the unmistakable footprints of Tapirs were seldom 
absent, being sometimes so numerous and fresh that one or more animals must have 
been very recently in our vicinity. We never, however, saw one; and our stay was too 
short to organize any serious pursuit of them. 
«‘ We next came across Tapirs in a very different country, though situated in what is 
probably the same range of forest and on the same watershed. This was in the high moun- 
tainous district of Santa Cruz, which is reached in a short day’s journey from the village 
of San Gerénimo in Vera Paz. We had gone thither to explore the district; and the 
day previous to our arrival a native had hunted and killed two Dantas close to where 
we took up our quarters. We had the melancholy satisfaction of tasting their flesh, 
but the animals had been chopped up before we even heard of their capture. Santa 
Cruz, the elevation of which is about 6000 feet above the séa, was clothed, at the time 
of our visit, with dense virgin forest with occasional clearings; and Tapirs were said to 
be not uncommon. ‘The hunters told us that when pursued they would rush down the 
mountain-side for a long distance until they reached water, in which they would stand 
at bay. They have regular paths in the forest, one of which we followed for some 
distance. The flesh of the Tapir is dark-coloured and rather strongly flavoured, and 
probably most appreciated by hungry hunters in the mountain air of Santa Cruz. 
‘We have no notes of the occurrence of Tapirs in the forests of Northern Vera Paz; 
nor did we meet with any sign of them on the road to Peten, though forests and water 
such as they love were there in plenty. 
“On the Pacific coast Tapirs are no doubt abundant. In the forests of the hacienda 
of El Overo, a few leagues from the port of San José, the proprietor, Don Juan Viteri, 
assured us that they were to be found in plenty. He it was, we believe, who supplied 
Captain Dow with the original specimens of 7. dowz. We also had tidings of this 
animal in various other parts of this coast; but none ever came actually under our own 
observation, except on one occasion. Early in 1874 Salvin was staying at one of the 
coffee-plantations at San Augustin, a cultivated tract on the slopes of the Volcano of 
Antitlan, situated between 2000 and 3000 feet above the sea. An excursion to ascend 
the mountain had been arranged, and a camp pitched in the forest at a height of about 
6000 feet on a sharp spur between two deep ravines. Two native hunters with their dogs 
were with the party, and after the camp was formed Salvin proceeded up the crest of 
BIOL. CENT.-AMER., Mamm. Vol. 1, June 1880. P 
