THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
changed from torrid to temperate outside the Tropics, this line 
of animals, instead of adaptively and locally changing with 
them, expired elsewhere than under the equator, where heat 
and moisture still reigned. There they continued to live and 
reproduce their kind until now. Hence it is no longer difficult 
to understand why both South America and 
Malaya have representatives of the family, 
or why the species are many, though the 
numbers and range of each are limited. 
In structure, however, the tapir is nearer 
to the rhinoceros than to the horse, for the 
limbs are short and massive, and the feet 
have four toes in front (second, third, fourth, 
and fifth, the third largest), and three (sec- 
ond, third, and fourth) behind, each incased 
in a separate and proper hoof. The neck 
is short and thick, the skull short and high, 
yet the head looks long in life because of 
the swollen nose. The teeth are only forty- 
two, and are far less complicated and per- 
fected than are those of the horse, for the 
food is soft and requires little grinding. The 
hair is short and close, forming a little stiff 
mane on the nape of the neck, but orna- 
menting no tail, since there is almost no such an appendage. 
The colors are dull, aiding in the concealment upon which 
the animal must mainly rely for safety; and it is chiefly noc- 
turnal because defenseless. 
The Malay tapir, the only species in the Old World, is the 
largest of the family, standing nearly four feet tall at the rump, 
where the back is most elevated,” and is brown black, with a 
grayish blanket over the back behind the shoulders, and white 
ears. South and Central America contain four species, differing in 
structural features, but all uniform brownish black and of very 
372 
TAPIR’S FORE FOOT. 
(Compare page 235.) 
