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TAPIR 



VERY few men have shot a tapir, one of the chief 

 reasons being that very few have considered it worth 

 while to take the trouble. Its size does not entitle it 

 to inclusion among " big game " in the proper sense of 

 the word. It is inoffensive, and, though it can inflict 

 a severe bite, is not, even when wounded, in any way 

 dangerous. It has no trophies, and no spoils of 

 market value. There is, therefore, little inducement 

 to seek it, and the few European residents of the 

 Malay Peninsula who care to give up their time and 

 money to big-game shooting, devote their attention to 

 news of elephant, rhinoceros, sladang, and tiger, and 

 trackers seldom think of bringing information of so 

 inglorious an animal as a tapir. Some possibly would 

 not even turn aside to follow its fresh tracks should 

 they come upon them by chance in the forest. On 

 the other hand, the men who do not aspire to big 

 game, and, contenting themselves with deer and pig, 

 hunt with dogs, seldom visit the localities where 

 tapirs are to be found ; and as they do not attempt 

 "still -hunting" the American expression for the 

 silent tracking and overtaking of an unsuspecting 



