328 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 



had tusks fifteen feet long. Several specimens have been 

 found in the ice in Siberia, and, though untold ages old, 

 were perfectly preserved. They were contemporaneous 

 with early man. An extinct pygmy Maltese elephant was 

 only three feet high. So-called white elephants are merely 

 albinos, and never pure white. 



VALUE. In 1880 nearly seven hundred tons of elephant-ivory was 

 imported into Great Britain alone, and to supply the yearly demand 

 one hundred thousand elephants are destroyed. They are also used as 

 beasts of burden and laborers (Fig. 353). 



Uneven-toed Ungulates (Perissodactyla). Tapir 



(Tapirida). The animals of this family are distinguished 

 by their short, fleshy, proboscis-like nose (Fig. 354). They 

 have four toes on each front foot, and three on each hind 

 one. The skin is dark and nearly hairless, the neck bear- 

 ing a fleshy crest. The South American tapir has a wide 

 range, and in the Andes is found twelve thousand feet 

 above the sea. Their habits are partly aquatic and noc- 

 turnal. The Malay tapir is black, with the exception of 

 a prominent white spot upon the rump. The young are 

 spotted and striped in a beautiful manner. 



Rhinoceros {Rhinocerontida}. The animals of this 

 family rank next to the elephant in point of size, and are 

 peculiar to Africa, India, and adjacent islands. They are 

 extremely bulky, with bodies covered with a naked, armor- 

 like skin deposited in folds. They have incisors in both 

 jaws ; upon the muzzle grow one or two horns two or 

 three feet long, composed of agglutinated, hair-like fibers, 

 having no connection with the bone, and in some species 

 being movable. 



The Indian rhinoceros (R. Indicus) is one of the most 

 powerful, being nearly ten feet long, and attaining a weight 

 of three tons. They have a single horn, sometimes three 

 feet long, that forms a formidable weapon. The Sumatran 

 species has two horns. 



