S7S, DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE TAI'IRID.E. [Nov. 1-1, 



milk-teeth, the development of the alveoles is not so uniform, the 

 cavities left by the milk-teeth being much larger and more or less 

 broken away on the outer edge ; while the inner series of pits, from 

 which the permanent teeth are to be developed, are much smaller, 

 shallower, and far apart ; perhaps they would have been larger and 

 more developed if the animal had been allowed to live until the per- 

 manent teeth were more developed. 



The space between the two series is much larger in the skull of 

 the Elasmognathus hairdi. The skull of the younger specimen of 

 E. hairdi in the British Museum has lost all its milk cutting-teeth 

 in each of the jaws, each leaving a well-marked, regular, circular, 

 conical cavity on the edge of the jaw. Just within these cavities, 

 but well separated from them by a bony plate, and alternating with 

 the cavities of the milk-teeth, is placed a regular series of six well- 

 developed similar, but not quite so large, circular, conical cavities. 

 At the base of each cavity is to be observed the commencement of a 

 tooth, being the teeth of the permanent series. The front of the 

 lower jaw exhibits the same peculiarity ; but the cutting-teeth of the 

 lower jaw are more unequal in size, the cavities of the central series 

 being the largest, and gradually diminishing in size to the outer one. 

 In the skulls of the young American Tapir and of the E. hairdi 

 there is a second cavity on the inner side of the base of the milk- 

 canine. In the skull of 2\ americanus one of the milk-canines is 

 remaining ; it is of a very small size, and compressed lancet-shaped 

 in form. In the E. hairdi the milk-canines are shed. 



In the skull of the young Tapirus americanus in the British Mu- 

 seum, which has shed its cutting-teeth, there is an abnormal tooth 

 (probably a false grinder) to be observed on each side of the maxilla, 

 rather in front of the middle of the space between the base of the 

 canine and the front edge of the first grinder. They are each placed 

 on the outer side of the jawbone, near the lower edge, and are co- 

 vered with well-developed enamel, and are similar in form and size. 

 Are these teeth similar to the front or false grinders in Anoplo- 

 therium 1 



The family may be divided into two groups or tribes : — 



Tribe I. TAPIRINA. 



The nasal aperture elongate, gradually contracted into a narrow 

 opening in front, extending nearly to the root of the upper 

 canines. The upper jaws only united in front as far as the 

 root of the canines; the upper part on the sides uf the nasal 

 aperture broad, rounded. The inter nasal cartilage only ossifed 

 at the hinder part under the nasal bone. 



M. Cuvier, in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' vol. ii. p. 145, gives the 

 osteology of the American Tapir (2'. americanus) with considerable 

 detail, and devotes a chapter to the comparison of the bones of the 

 Indian Tapir {T. indicus) with those of the American Tapir (p. 1.56) ; 

 he figures the skeleton and skull of the two species and some of the 

 other bones. The figures of the sejiarate skull and of the .skeleton 



