698 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



Several species of Tapirs are known, of which the most 

 familiar is the American Tapir (T. Americanus), which in- 

 habits the vast forests of South America. It is a large animal, 

 something like a pig in shape, but brownish black in colour, 

 and having a mane. It is nocturnal in its habits, and is strictly 

 phytophagous. The proboscis is employed in conveying the 

 food to the mouth, and the nostrils are placed at its extremity. 

 It attains altogether a total length of from five to six feet. 

 Another species, with longer hair (T. villosus), inhabits the 

 Andes, and a still larger species (T. Malayanus) is found in 

 Sumatra, Borneo, and Malacca. In this last, there is no 

 mane, and the general colour is black ; but the back, rump, 

 and sides of the belly are white. The Elasmognathus Bairdii 

 occurs in Central America, and one or more species of the 

 genus Tapirus (T. Roulini and T. leucogenys] have been dis- 

 covered in the elevated regions of Ecuador and New Granada. 



Fam. 4. Brontotheridtz. We may provisionally place here 

 the large fossil Mammals from the Miocene of North America, 

 which Professor Marsh has described under the name of Bron- 

 totheridce. In these, the fore-feet have four nearly equal toes, 



Fig- 393- Skull of Brontotherium ingens. (After Marsh.) 



and the hind-feet three, thus resembling the Tapirs. The 

 skull is elongated, and a pair of very large horn-cores are 

 carried upon the maxillaries and the anchylosed nasal bones 

 in both sexes. The dental formula in Brontotherium is 



?2=|j ,i=I; pm 4=4 3-3 = 3g> 



22 i i 33 33 



The incisors are small ; and the canines are short and not 

 separated from the praemolars by any diastema, these latter 

 being much smaller than the molars. The neck was long, and 

 there seems to have been a long tail. The nose was probably 



