672 



COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



The tapirs (TAPIRID.E) have four toes on the fore feet and three 

 on the hind feet. They occur in Central and South America, 

 Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula. The American tapirs 

 (Fig. 538) have a long, prehensile nose. They feed on soft 

 plants and are hunted for their flesh. 



The rhinoceroses are large, thick-skinned mammals with one 

 or two epidermal horns on the nasal and frontal bones. The 



FIG. 538. The American tapir, 

 Tapirus americanus. (From Flower 

 and Lydekker.) 



FIG. 539. The Indian rhinoceros, 

 Rhinoceros unicornis. (From Flower 

 and Lydekker, after Wolf.) 



Indian species (Fig. 539) has one horn ; the Sumatran form has 

 two, as has also the white rhinoceros of Africa. 



Order Proboscidea. ELEPHANTS. There are two genera of 

 elephants, each with one living species. The Asiatic elephant, 

 Elephas indicus, inhabits the jungles of India; the African ele- 

 phant, Loxodonta africanus (Fig. 540) , lives in tropical forests 

 and is hunted for its tusks. Both species possess five digits on 

 each foot; are covered by a thick, loose skin (therefore called 

 pachyderms) with a thin coat of hair; have a long, muscular 

 proboscis with nasal openings at the tip; are provided with tusks 

 which develop from the incisors; possess small eyes and tail 

 and enormous ears; and are without canine teeth. The skull 

 is massive, because the bones are thickened and contain air 

 spaces, and the grinding teeth are very large and possess com- 

 plicated ridges. 



