THE COMMON AMERICAN TAPIR. 419 



born it measures three feet four inches in length, and two 

 feet in height, and has, for about a month afterwards, a pink 

 suffusion over the dark colour which is proper to the mature 

 hide. It continues to suck for nearly two years. 



THE COMMON AMERICAN TAPIR. (Tapirus Americanus, Linn.) 

 Mborebi. Ant a. 



Few mammals of its size have so extensive a range as the 

 American tapir. It inhabits every part of South America to 

 the east of the Andes, from the Straits of Magellan to the 

 Isthmus of Darien ; but it appears to be most common within 

 the tropics. M. lloulin says, that although it occurs as low 

 as forty degrees to the south of the equator, its range abruptly 

 terminates at about eight degrees north, in a situation where 

 it is extremely abundant, and there does not appear adequate 

 cause to bar its farther progress j no large rivers nor lofty 

 mountains intervening, nor any change appearing in the cha- 

 racter of the vegetation of the country. The left bank of the 

 Atrato near its mouth, and the part of Darien inhabited by 

 the independent natives, may be considered as its northern 

 limit. Its highest range in the province of Maraquita, at least 



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