236 WILD BEASTS OF THE WOULD 



is rather larger than the Brazilian species, and has an exceedingly 

 close coat and no mane. Its colour is very peculiar, being black and 

 white very sharply contrasted; the head, neck, and fore-quarters gene- 

 rally are black, and also the hind-limbs, while the body is white, so 

 that the general effect is of a black animal round whose body a 

 white sheet has been tightly sewn. As so often happens, however, 

 it resembles its relations much more closely when young, the infant 

 Malayan Tapir having the same curious display of whitish spots and 

 stripes on a dark ground which are found on the young of the 

 American kinds, so that no one would know that they would grow 

 up so different in colour. No doubt this spotted coat was the livery 

 of the original ancestor of the family. 



The Malayan Tapir has the same habits as the Brazilian, being 

 a forest-dweller and fond of water ; it occasionally falls a prey to 

 the Tiger, as its relation does to the Jaguar, and it seems strange 

 that creatures of this primitive type, with no special facilities either 

 for escape or defence, should have been able to maintain their 

 existence through long ages in the same countries as two of the 

 most terrible of the carnivores. 



This Tapir is not nearly so common in captivity as the Brazilian 

 species ; it does well enough in India, though not better than 

 American Tapirs, but in Europe it has the reputation of being a 

 delicate animal, and has comparatively seldom been exhibited in the 

 London Zoological Gardens. 



