SOUTH AMERICA 403 



The Antarctic "wolves" were said to feed on various native 

 birds, harrying the penguin colonies and driving the upland 

 geese to nest on small islands off the coasts. Seals were eaten 

 too. Their extreme tameness may have been a result of long 

 isolation and lack of contact with man, but their failure to 

 develop any wholesome fear of him may have been in part a 

 result of the use of such silent weapons as bolos and knives 

 and probably traps, rather than firearms. 



Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle and Darwin in 1836 brought 

 back four of these animals, two of which are still preserved as 

 specimens in the British Museum, which has a skeleton in 

 addition. The Royal College of Surgeons had two skulls 

 which may now be in the British Museum, for according to 

 Pocock (1913) there are five crania in that institution. Pocock 

 adds that the other known material representing this animal 

 is in Paris, but he does not tell of what it consists. Renshaw, 

 however, states that the Leiden Museum has three specimens. 

 It was first exhibited by the Zoological Society of London in 

 1845. Twenty years later, in 1868, a pair was again sent to 

 the Society, but one only survived the journey. Again in 

 1870, a pair was sent by Byng, of which the male died on the 

 voyage. 



Order PERISSODACTYLA: Odd-toed Ungulates 



This order is represented by three Recent families: 



(1) Equidae, the horses, asses, and zebras. The wild horses 

 are Eurasian, but all except a few individuals of the Przewalski 

 horse of Mongolia have become extinct. 



(2) Rhinocerotidae, the rhinoceroses of southern Asia and 

 Africa. 



(3) Tapiridae, the tapirs, with nose and upper lip produced 

 into a short proboscis, are found in Central and South America, 

 the Malay Peninsula, and part of the Malay Archipelago. 



The odd-toed ungulates are represented in South America 

 only by the tapirs. The mountain tapir is poorly known and 

 is thought to be endangered by the agricultural development 

 of the northern Andes. J. E. H. 



