dE 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 Perissodactyle order. 
It has four toes on the front-feet, though only three on the hind- 
feet. The number of teeth is 42—nearly the typical Euther- 
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 band; the young of the Tapir is spotted, and 
striped with white. The nose and upper lip conjoined are pro- 
Fic. 128.—American Tapir. Tapirus terrestris. x 75. 
duced into a short trunk, precisely comparable with that of the 
Elephant. As in the Rhinoceros—and in this both contrast with 
the other existing Perissodactyle genus Hgwus—the temporal fossa 
is not separated from the orbit by bone. Of existing Tapirs 
there are at any rate 7’. terrestris,’ T. roulini (the “'Tapir Pinch- 
aque” of Cuvier), 7. dowt and ZY. bairdi in America (the last 
two being sometimes separated into a distinct genus, “/asmo- 
gnathus, on account of the prolongation of the ossified mesethmoid), 
and 7. indicus in the East. The tapir, probably 7. terrestris, 1s 
described by Buffon as “a dull and gloomy animal.” It is 
certainly mainly nocturnal in habit. The name ferrestris was 
given by Linnaeus, who placed it in the same genus as Hippo- 
' T. leucogenys and T. ecuadorensis are probably not distinct, the latter being 
in reality 7. terrestris, the former 7’. roulini. 
