THE TAPia. 



51 



nate species in one of the Indian islands and in South 

 America appears as if it were an exception to a general 

 rule, at least if we limit our views to the races now ex- 

 tant on the earth. Once, indeed, America was replete 

 with animals of this order : and why so few should now 

 appear as their representatives is a point not easy of 

 solution. In their general form and contour the tapii-? 

 remind us of the hog ; but the snout consists of a flexible 

 proboscis, not, indeed, elongated like that of the ele- 

 phant, but still sufficiently developed to serve as a hook 

 by which the animal is capable of drawing down twigs 

 to the mouth, of grasping fruit or bunches of herbage. 

 The nostrils open at its extremity in the form of two 

 transverse fissures, but there is no finger-like append- 

 age. (For anatomy see 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc.' 1830, 

 p. 163.) 



The tapir is a massive, powerful animal ; the limbs 

 are thick and moderately long ; the head is large, com- 

 pressed, and, in the American species, elevated at the 



19.— Skull of American Tapir. 



occiput (see Fig. 19), whence the thick neck rises with a 

 prominent upper crest or ridge, along which runs a mane 

 of stiff thinly-set hairs. The eyes are small and deej) 

 set; the ears are rather short ; the tail is rudimentary. 



