782 



TAPIR. 



not very particular as to the choice of a meal, for it 

 can gnaw twigs, or eat carrion ; and it is said at 

 times to swallow the same sort of fat clay which 

 report mentions as part of the seasonal food of some 

 of the Indian tribes of the Orinoco, and some other 

 damp and wooded places. Like many of the order, 

 it is very tenacious of life, and affords another proof 

 of the general law, that the more passive and sluggish 

 that life is in any animal, it is extinguished with the 

 greater difficulty. It is some time before even the 

 most serious wound takes effect upon it ; and 

 D'Azzara mentions that he has seen one continue to 

 run for some time after two musket-balls had passed 

 through its heart. It is fond of the water, and swims 

 well with a leaping motion something like that of a 

 pig ; but it does not dive or repose in the water like 

 the hippopotamus. The water is usually its retreat, 

 however, when it is wounded, and probably also its 

 last resource against the attacks of the jaguar. The 

 Indians, who are by no means particular in their 

 appetite, hunt it with avidity, and readily eat its 

 flesh ; but it is not relished by the Europeans or 

 their descendants. The Indians shoot it with their 

 poisoned weapons, or kill it with those of their usual 

 warfare, and one is esteemed a prize for a family. 

 The Europeans also sometimes hunt it, using dogs 

 to drive it from its cover ; but this is done from 

 sport, or from the idea that it injures their planta- 

 tions, which it is very apt to do to those that lie 

 near the woods. 



When attacked it offers but little active resistance, 

 and never bites, though its mouth is tolerably well 

 adapted for that purpose. It utters a complaining 

 cry, which is a querulous kind of hiss, and not in the 

 least resembling the squeak of a pig in affliction. Its 

 first attempt is to escape by creeping into the brush- 

 wood, which it does with much ease and speed con- 

 sidering its voluminous size. This is also understood 

 to be its first and readiest resource in case of an 

 attack from its feline foe, as it is much more dexterous 

 in threading the brake than the jaguar. Its head is 

 indeed remarkably well adapted for boring through 

 tangled places, being in the form of a conical wedge, 

 and so thick toward the posterior part, that wherever 

 it opens a way, the rest of the body can pass, thick 

 and clumsy as that is. Its only means of active resist- 

 ance is said to be kicking with the heels, in which 

 it is represented as being rather dexterous, and to 

 which mode of defence it has recourse, when it can- 

 not force its way into the place where it has made 

 the attempt. When hard pressed by the dogs, it 

 will also seize them by the back with its rough 

 mouth, and shake them till the skin is lacerated or 

 torn off, but it is unable to give them a regularly 

 wounding bite. The females bring forth their young, 

 which is generally only a single one, in the month of 

 November, which answers to the May of our year ; 

 but the male lives apart, and takes no interest in the 

 progeny ; and even the female is said to have but 

 very little affection for her young. 



The tapir is thus one of the most passive of the 

 mammalia, and one which stands low in the scale, 

 both in sensation and in action. Its sight is, in all 

 probability, not very keen, as that is a sense of which 

 it does not often make use. Its skin is also not well 

 adapted for being a general organ of touch ; and the 

 miscellaneous nature of its food prevents us from 

 supposing that it can have much taste. Their ears 

 and nose being the organs of sense that are most 

 developed, they most likely depend most on smelling 



for their food, and on hearing to keep out of the way 

 of danger. 



Their passive nature renders them easily tamed, if 

 taming it can be called in animals which cannot be 

 made to harm any thing. We are not aware that 

 they are in any instance bred in confinement, as they 

 do not possess any obvious property that makes 

 them worth breeding ; but when taken young, they 

 go about the house inoffensive to all ether animals, 

 never attempting to escape, and eating indifferently 

 of any kind of food, animal or vegetable, of which, 

 however, they require a very considerable quantity. 

 We omitted, in noticing the structure, to state that 

 the head and neck of the tapir, as far as the shoulders, 

 are fortified with a sort of shield, by means of which 

 it can raise the bushes out of its way without sus- 

 taining so much injury as an animal having only 

 ordinary skin. On the head this shield consists of a 

 thickening of the outer table of the cranial bones ; 

 but on the neck and shoulders it consists of a very 

 thick and indurated skin. The full-grown animals, 

 though they vary a little in the shade of their colour, 

 have it entire without any markings ; but the young 

 ones are dappled over something in the same manner 

 as fawns, or rather perhaps spotted hogs. Taking it 

 altogether, there are not many animals more desti- 

 tute of attractive qualities than the American tapir. 



THE MALAY TAPIR (T. Indicus), is a much more 

 recent addition to the animals known to Europeans 

 than the tapir of tropical America, and it differs in 

 many particulars. It is not met with in continental 

 India, or we believe in Ceylon, but only in the 

 Malay islands and peninsula, though in how many of 

 them is not known. It is altogether a much more 

 massive animal than the American tapir; thicker in 

 the body, shorter and thicker in the head, and with the 

 legs much shorter and stouter, and the feet broader ; 

 but the number of toes and hoofs is the same as in 

 the other, and the character of the mouth differs little 

 if any thing. The feet are adapted for walking on 

 softer ground than those of the American tapir, and 

 the animal appears to be more aquatic in its habits. 

 The animal is perhaps a little heavier than the Ame- 

 rican, but it is not quite so long. The flexible part 

 of the snout is a little larger^ in proportion, being 

 seven or eight inches ; but the bones which support 

 its face are shorter. The outline of the profile is also 

 more convex, and the snout is, in its integument, a 

 little more like the proboscis of the elephant, though 

 it is not actually prehensile, otherwise than by 

 pressing against the under lip ; the eyes are small, 

 and the ears rounded, with white hair around their 

 margins ; the skin is very thick and strong, with very 

 little hair, what there is, is very short, and no vestige 

 of a mane on the neck or shoulders ; the colour from 

 a little behind the fore legs and shoulders, quite 

 round the body as far back as the groin, and down 

 the rump to the root of the tail, is of a uniform sandy 

 white in the mature animal, and the rest of the body 

 and the legs are black. This marking gives it a very 

 odd appearance, as if it were a jet black animal with 

 a dull white cloth wrapped round its body, from near 

 the fore legs to the rump. This white patch is not, 

 however, constant in its shape and size ; for in some 

 specimens the middle of the belly is black ; and it is 

 by no means improbable that there may be still 

 greater differences of colours than these ; for animals 

 which have their colour broken into large patches, 

 as these have, are seldom constant either in the size 

 or the shape of the patches. The young are much 



