Common Tapir 383 



THE WHITE-LIPPED PECCARY 



[Dicotyles labiatus) 



This species has a much more restricted range than the collared kind, 

 extending only from British Honduras to the south of Paraguay. In addi- 

 tion to being a larger animal (length 40 inches), it is distinguished from 

 the collared peccary by its black colour and white lips and lower jaw. 



In habits it is also markedly different from the latter, associating in 

 large herds, sometimes containing as many as a hundred individuals, under 

 the leadership of an old boar. It is likewise of a pugnacious disposition, 

 and can inflict serious wounds with its sharp tusks. A herd should there- 

 fore be given a wide berth by an unarmed man. 



THE COMMON TAPIR 



[Tnpirus terrestris) 



(Plate VIII. Fig. 5) 



Shy and inoffensive animals, frequenting the most dense tropical and 

 subtropical jungles, and unprovided with either horns, antlers, or long 

 tusks, the tapirs offer very little attraction to the European sportsman, by 

 whom they are but seldom hunted. Nevertheless they undoubtedly come 

 under the designation of big game, and must therefore receive mention in 

 the present work. 



Although often supposed to be related to the pig tribe, tapirs are 

 really distant cousins of the horses and the rhinoceroses, but they are 

 decidedly of a more primitive type than the latter, and therefore infinitely 

 more so than the former. Indeed, they approach much more nearly, 

 especially as regards the form of their teeth, to certain extinct odd-toed. 



