AMERICAN TAPIRS 



251 



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 I'erissodactyle order. 

 It has four tt)es on the front-feet, though only three on the hind- 

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

 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 Ijand : the young of the Tapir is spotted, and 

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



FiG. 128. — American Tapir. Tajyirus terrestrib 



duced into a short trunk, precisely comparal)le with that of the 

 Elephant. As in tlie Ehinoceros — and in this l)oth contrast with 

 the other existing Perissodactyle genus Uqnus — the temporal fossa 

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

 there are at any rate T. terrcstris} T. roulini (the " Tapir I'inch- 

 aque " of Cuvier), T. doici and T. hairdi in America (the last 

 two being sometimes separated into a distinct genus, Elasmo- 

 [jnnthus, on account of the prolongation of the ossified mesethmoid), 

 and T. indicus in the East. The tapir, probably 2\ terrestris, is 

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

 certainly mainly nocturnal in hal)it. The name terrestris was 

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



^ T. hucoyenya and T. ecuculorensis are probably not. distinct, tlie latter being 

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



