1872,] 



DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW TAPIR. 



491 



I know no such transformation in the disposition and form of the 

 colour in any other mammal in passing from youth to age. The spots 

 are obliterated ; and sometimes the coloured part becomes altered or 

 obliterated ; but I know no instance of the disposition and character 

 of the colour being changed as occurs in these two specimens. If 

 Mr. Buckley's account is correct and this is the very youn°- state, it 

 is an entirely new fact in the study of Mammalia. 



Skull of Tapirus leucogau/s. 



The skull of this young specimen has a very short face, and a glo- 

 bular brain-case, which is rather convex on its upper surface in the 

 central line, and raised above the plane of the nose, much more like 

 the skull of T. terrestris than that of T. leucogemjs. The skull of 

 the half-grown lined specimen has a small braiu-case with a flat upper 

 surface, very like the skull of the adult of that species, which is also 

 the case with the young spotted specimen of T. pinchacus in the Paris 

 Museum, brought by M. Goudot and figured by Blainville. I do 

 not lay much stress on this difference in the form of the young and 

 adult animal from the half-grown and adult specimen of T, leucogemjs, 

 as I have not been able to form a series showing the changes the skull 

 of Tapirs undergoes during growth from the very young state to 

 adult age ; but certainly the form of it and the half-grown are so 

 exceedingly different that I think it well thev should be described 



