CHAPTER VII. 



THE TAPIRS. 



THE FAMILY TAPIRID^E — THE AMERICAN TAPIR — ITS TRUNK — ITS HABITS — THE TAPIR AS A DOMES- 

 TIC ANIMAL — A TAPIR HUNT — PECULIAR MARKS OF THE "XOUNG TAPIR — THE MALAY TAPIR — 

 ITS TRUNK — ITS COLOR — DISCOVERY OF THE ANIMAL — CHINESE ACCOUNT — THE PINCHAQUR 

 — baird's TAPIR. 



THE family Tapirid^e consists of a small group of animals 

 which are found in the equatorial forests of South America, 

 and in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. For a long time 

 only two species were known, but recently Dr. Gray has discovered four 

 species in the Andes of New Granada and Ecuador, and two mofe in 

 Central America. 



The Tapirs are comparatively small, stout-built animals, that appear 

 to stand half-way between the elephants and the swine. They have an 

 elongated, narrow head, slender neck, short rudimentary tail, and legs 

 of moderate length ; the ears are short and broad ; the eyes oblique and 

 small. The upper lip is prolonged like an elephant's trunk, and hangs 

 down over the lower lip ; the fore-feet have four toes, the hind-feet, 

 three ; the hair is short, smooth, and thick. 



The American Tapir has been known to naturalists for a long time, 

 but the Malay Tapir has only been known since the beginning of this 

 century to Europeans, although it has been described for centuries in 

 Chinese works. As is usually the case when a family has representatives 

 in the old and new world, the old world species seem more highly 

 developed than those that live in the new. 



I.— GENUS TAPIRUS. 



The American Tapir, Tapirus tcrrestris (Plate XXXIV), was men- 

 tioned by travelers a few years after the discovery of America ; they 

 regarded it as a kind of hippopotamus, and it appeared in works oi 



