TRAITS OF AMERICAN TAPIRS 
similar habits. A curious fact is, that two of them are more 
nearly allied to the Malayan tapir than to their neighbors. 
Young tapirs are spotted at first, as is the rule among forest- 
dwelling quadrupeds. Tapirs everywhere are solitary, shy, 
timid, and nocturnal. They have a hoglike fondness for water, 
and old Dampier gave us accurate information, as usual, when 
he wrote :?? — 
“This Creature is always found in the Woods near some large River; 
and feeds on a sort of long thin Grass or Moss. . When her Belly is full, 
she lies down to sleep by the Brink of the River; and at the least Noise 
slips into the Water: when, sinking down to the Bottom, though very deep, 
she walks as on the dry Ground. She cannot run fast, therefore never ram- 
bles far from the River; for there she always takes Sanctuary in case of 
Danger.” 
They are mainly browsers, for the nose and upper lip are 
prolonged into a fleshy proboscis precisely comparable with that 
of the elephant, by which they can easily seize and draw into the 
mouth the succulent leaves and shoots they enjoy. All sorts of 
plants seem acceptable, and where numerous they are likely to 
do much harm to the Indians’ poorly fenced patches of garden 
or orchard. Tschudi says that this happens often in Peru. “A 
broad furrow marks the track along which they have passed, 
and the plants they encounter in their progress are trampled 
down or devoured. Such a visit [from a troop] is particularly 
fatal to the cocoa fields; for the tapirs are extremely fond of 
the leaves of the low-growing cocoa plant, and they often in 
one night destroy a cocoa field which has cost a poor Indian 
the hard labor of a year.” 
In Central America the tapir is everywhere known as ‘“‘danta,”’ 
and will be found in all dense forests, in Guatemala, at least, 
climbing high on the mountains, down which it will rush when 
pursued until it reaches water in which to stand at bay. This 
defensive’ trick is its means of escape from the jaguar, its fore- 
most enemy in America, as are the tiger and other big cats in 
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