252 



THE ORIENTAL TAPIR 



'potamus ainpMMus ; hence the epithet applied to the Tapir. But 

 as a matter of fact it loves marshy neighhourhoods, and is in a 

 way amphibious. This does not of course apply to the Andesian 

 T. roulini, which inhabits the cordillera of Ecuador and Colombia. 

 The distril)ution of existing Tapirs is, as is so often the case, 

 restricted when compared with that of their extinct congeners and 

 allies. In Europe the remains of the genus ?^rt|7iv7/s are al)undant 

 from Pliocene strata, and its remains are there known from 

 as far back as the Miocene. The genus is thus one of the very 

 oldest forms of Mammalia at present inhabiting the earth. 



Fig. 129. — Malayan Tapir. Tapirus indicns, young. 



^. (From Xatvrc.) 



The Malayan Tapir is to l)e ehstinguished from the American 

 {2\ terrestris — the other species have not been dissected) by the 

 greater development of the valvulae conniventes in the intestine, 

 the absence of a moderator band in the heart, and the less 

 elongated caecum, which is sacculated liy only three Imnds, there 

 beino- four in T. terrestris} The animal frequents the most 

 retired spots among the hill woods, by which habit it seems 



' See Beddard, Froc. Zool. Soc. 1SS9, p. 252, and other pa^iers there cited, for 

 the anatomy of the Tapir. 



