184 PACHYDERMATOUS WATER TEESPASSERS. 



easily take her little one on shore, but she very much 

 prefers to remain in the river; so she sinks herself 

 in the water until she comes below the feet of her 

 offspring, and then, rising to the surface, she lifts her 

 child on her back, and carries it about wherever she 

 goes. The neck is the usual position for the young 

 Hippopotamus under these circumstances. 



THE TAPIR (Tapirus terrestris). 



There are supposed to be several species of Tapir, 

 but we will restrict ourselves to the two typical 

 examples, namely, the Common Tapir of tropical 

 America, which is figured in Plate III., and the 

 Malayan Tapir (Tapirus Malay anus). 



These are most valuable animals to the systematic 

 zoologist, as by their means he is -able to trace many 

 of the links that bind together the various species of 

 the pachydermata. They scarcely look like modern 

 creatures, so closely do they resemble in form and 

 attitude the extinct animals which we only know by 

 their fossil remains. There is one peculiar, squatting 

 attitude which they are fond of assuming, and which 

 gives them a sort of weird, grotesque aspect that is 

 really startling. 



One of the most conspicuous points in the structure 

 of this animal is the extraordinary length of its snout, 

 which is very much longer than that of the pig, but 

 not nearly so long as that of the elephant. And it is 

 a very remarkable point that there are fossil remains 

 of animals in which the snout is gradually lengthened, 



