390 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



it is termed the Pinchaque. It is generally touiui at an elevation of 

 between 7000 and 8000 feet above sea-level. In addition to the presence 

 of a large whitish patch on each cheek, it differs from the tapir of the 

 plains by the less vaulted skull and rounder neck, as well as by the slighter 

 development of the mane of hair in the latter region. This tapir was 

 described by Roulin so long ago as the year 1829. In correlation with its 

 mountain habitat, the hair is coarse and long ; the general colour being 

 blackish brown both above and below as well as on the limbs. On the 

 sides and under surRice of the head and neck the colour changes to speckled 

 brownish grev, becoming still lighter on the cheeks. The lips are 

 bordered with a broad band of white. Nothing, apparently, has been 

 recorded of the habits of this tapir in the wild state, x^t the present time 

 it is represented in the exhibition series of the British Museum by a 

 specimen obtained many years ago from Ecuador. 



BAIRD'S TAPIR 



{Tapir us hairch) 



From the two tapirs described above the present and the next species 

 differ in regard to the nasal region of the skull ; this difference being 

 regarded by many naturalists as of sufficient importance to justify their 

 reference to a distinct genus, Elasimgnathus. In the common tapir, as 

 well as in Roulin's tapir, the partition, or septum, between the two nostrils 

 in the skull remains cartilaginous throughout life, as in the great majority 

 of mammals. In Baird's tapir and Dow's tapir, on the other hand, this 

 partition becomes bony in adult animals, thus forming in the dry skull 

 a solid longitutlinal and vertical wall of bone dividing; the nasal chamber 

 into two halves. A precisely similar bony partition is found in the extinct 

 woolly rhinoceros {Rhinoceros antiqiiitatis) of Northern Europe and Asia. 



