AMERICAN TAPIRS 



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Central America, and in the Malay Peninsula and the islands of 

 Java and Sumatra. This animal is in many respects the most 

 ancient of existing forms referable to the Perissodactyle order. 

 It has four toes on the front-feet, though only three on the hind- 

 feet. The number of teeth is 42 nearly the typical Euther- 

 ian number. The Tapirs are always moderately-sized animals, 

 entirely covered with hair, and usually of a brownish -black 

 colour. The Malayan Tapir is, however, banded broadly with 

 white a single band ; the young of the Tapir is spotted, and 

 striped with white. The nose and upper lip conjoined are pro- 



FIG. 128. American Tapir. Tapirus terrestris. x^. 



duced into a short trunk, precisely comparable with that of the 

 Elephant. As in the Ehinoceros and in this both contrast with 

 the other existing Perissodactyle genus Equus the temporal fossa 

 is not separated from the orbit by bone. Of existing Tapirs 

 there are at any rate T. terrestris? T. roulini (the " Tapir Pinch- 

 aque" of Cuvier), T. dowi and T. lairdi in America (the last 

 two being sometimes separated into a distinct genus, Elasmo- 

 gnathus, on account of the prolongation of the ossified mesethmoid), 

 and T. indicus in the East. The tapir, probably T. terrestris, is 

 described by Buffon as "a dull and gloomy animal." It is 

 certainly mainly nocturnal in habit. The name terrestris was 

 given by Linnaeus, who placed it in the same genus as Hippo- 



1 T. leucogenys and T. ecuadorensis are probably not distinct, the latter being 

 in reality T. terrestris, tbe former T. roulini. 



