CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 11. P ACI1 Y DERM AT A. 643 



THE DIXOTHERICM. 



except at night. It frequently breaks into the cultivated grounds in large herds, when the 

 destruction caused by their devouring the melons and other fruits, as well as by the trampling of 

 so many heavy feet, is often very serious. 



The second South American species, T. Roulini or T. viUosus, is but little known ; it differs from 

 the preceding in being smaller and nearly black, and having longer hair. It is found upon the 

 Andes of Colombia and Pern, at a considerable elevation, but sometimes mingles with the other 

 species. It is this which has given rise to a fabulous animal called Pinchague, which figures in 

 the South American legends, as inhabiting the lofty mountain peaks of New Grenada. 



The Indian Tapir, T. Indicus or T. bicolor, the Maiba of F. Cuvier, is larger than either of 

 the American species, measuring seven or eight feet in length. It is remarkable for its color- 

 ing, the anterior portion and the legs being black, while all the hinder parts of the body are 

 white. In its habits it appears to resemble the other species. It has onlv been found hitherto 

 in Sumatra, Malacca, and Borneo; but from Chinese books and figures it is supposed that it also 

 exists in some part of China. It appears to have given rise to the popular Chinese superstition 

 as to the miraculous animal called Me, which is said to have the trunk of the elephant, the eyes 

 of the rhinoceros, and the feet of the tiger, and which gnaws fire and brass, and feeds on mon- 

 strous serpents. 



Fossil Tapirid.e. — Xearly allied to the tapirs, and intermediate between them and the swine, 

 is a remarkable group of fossil animals, the remains of which are found abundantly in the gypsum 

 beds of Paris. In the form of the skull they resembled the tapirs, and as the nasal bonis are 

 strongly arched, they were doubtless furnished with a short proboscis. The structure of the 

 incisor and canine teeth is also the same as in the tapirs; but the molars were very different in 

 form. All the feet had three toes, which were nearly equal in length. These animals form the 

 genus Lophiodon, the Palceotkerium of Cuvier; their size was sometimes small, but some of the 

 species were as large as a horse. The names assigned to some of these species are Listriodon, 

 Tapirulns, Coryphodon, Arc. 



Until recently the mammoth and the mastodon were supposed to be the largest of all the ter- 



