110 MAMMALIA. 



one. Ten or twelve species have been extracted from our old fresh water 

 formations, the same in which the Palaeotherium is found. 

 To these genera should succeed the genus 



Tapir, Lin. 

 The nose resembles a small fleshy proboscis; there are four toes to the four 

 feet, and three to the hind ones. For a long time but a single species was 

 known, 



T. americanus, L. (The American Tapir.) Size of a small Ass; skin 

 brow^n and nearly naked; tail moderate; neck fleshy, forming a sort of crest 

 on the nape . Common in wet places, and along the rivers of the warm parts 

 of South America. The flesh is eaten. Within a few years a second spe- 

 cies has been discovered in the eastern continent. 



Fossil Tapirs are also scattered throughout Europe; and among others is 

 a ^gantic species, which in size must have nearly equalled the Elephant; 

 it is the Tap. giganteus, Cuv. 



FAMILY III. 



SOLIPEDES. 



The Solipedes are quadrupeds which have only one apparent toe, 

 and a single hoof to each foot, although under the skin, on each 

 side of their metatarsus and metacarpus, there are spurs represent- 

 ing two lateral toes. One genus only is known, that of 



Equus, Lin. 

 The Hwse has six incisors in each jaw. The male has also two small ad- 

 ditional canini in the upper jaw, and sometimes in both, which are almost 

 always wanting in the female. Between these canini and the first molar is 

 that unoccupied space which corresponds to the angle of the lips, where the 

 bit is placed, by which alone, Man has been enabled to subdue and tame this 

 powerful animal. 



E. caballus, L. (The Horse.) This noble associate of Man, in the chase, 

 in war, and in the works of agriculture, the arts and commerce, is the most 

 important and carefully attended of all the animals he has subdued. It does 

 not seem to erist in a wild state at the present time; those places excepted, 

 where Horses formerly domesticated have been set at hberty, as in Tartary 

 and America, where they Uve in troops, each of which is led and defended 

 by an old male. 



E.hemionus. (The Dzigguetai.) A species which,as to its proportions, 

 is intermediate between the horse and the Ass, and lives in troops in the 



