TAPIRUS MALAY ANUS. 



To these extracts from the accounts of Major Farquhar and of Sir T. S. Raffles, 

 which comprise all the information that has hitherto been communicated from 

 Sumatra relating to the Malayan Tapii-, I have only to add an account of the discovery 

 of this interesting animal. 



The first intelligence of its existence in Sumatra was given to the Government 

 of Fort Marlborough at Bencoolen, in the year 1772, by Mr. Whalfeldt, who was 

 employed in making a survey of the coast. In the month of April of that 

 year, it is noticed in the records, that Mr. W. laid before the Government his 

 observations on the places southward of Cawoor, where he met with the Tapir 

 at the mouth of one of the rivers. He considered it to be the Hippopotamus, and 

 described it by that name ; but the di-awing which accompanied the report, identifies 

 his animal with the Tapir. This mistake in the name may readily be explained, 

 when it is recollected that in the Tenth Edition of the Systema Nature of Linnsus, 

 the Tapir is placed as a species of Hippopotamus, while in the Twelfth Edition no 

 mention is made of that animal. 



The learned Author of the History of Sumatra, "William Marsden, Esq. was at 

 this time Secretary to the Government at Bencoolen ; and the Public owes to his 

 zeal in collecting every valuable information relating to that Island, the first notice 

 of the existence of this animal, which is by the Malays in many places denomi- 

 nated Kuda-ayer, literally Hippo-potamus. After the first discovery in 1772, the 

 Tapir was not observed for a considerable period. From the same Catalogue of 

 Sir T. S. Raffles, which has furnished the preceding description, it appears that 

 in the year 1805, a living specimen was sent to Sir George Leith, when Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Penang. It was afterwards observed by Major Farquhar in the vicinity 

 of Malacca. A drawing and description of it were communicated by him to the 

 Asiatic Society in 1816, and a living subject was afterwards sent to the ]VIanagerie 

 at Barrackpore from Bencoolen. At this place a drawing was made by Mr. Diard 

 in the year 1818, which, accompanied by an extract from the description of Major 

 Farquhar, was communicated to his friends in Paris, where, in March, 1819, 

 M. Fred. Cuvier published it in his large Lithographic Work on the Mammalia of 

 the Menagerie in Paris. 



In the month of September, 1820, the first specimen of the Malayan Tapu- 

 was received in England from Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, with the general Zoolo- 

 gical Collection of Mammalia and Birds, the descriptive catalogue of which being 

 contained in the Thirteenth Volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, has 

 been akeady referred to. This specimen of the Tapir was accompanied by a 



