328 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 
had tusks fifteen feet long. Several specimens have been 
found in the ice in Siberia, and, though untold ages old, 
were perfectly preserved. They were contemporaneous 
with early man. An extinct pygmy Maltese elephant was 
only three feet high. So-called white elephants are merely 
albinos, and never pure white. 
VALUE.—In 1880 nearly seven hundred tons of elephant-ivory was 
imported into Great Britain alone, and to supply the yearly demand 
one hundred thousand elephants are destroyed. They are also used as 
beasts of burden and laborers (Fig. 353). 
Uneven-toed Ungulates (Perissodactyla). Tapir 
( Zaptride).—The animals of this family are distinguished 
by their short, fleshy, proboscis-like nose (Fig. 354). They 
have four toes on each front foot, and three on each hind 
one. The skin is dark and nearly hairless, the neck bear- 
ing a fleshy crest. The South American tapir has a wide 
range, and in the Andes is found twelve thousand feet 
above the sea. Their habits are partly aquatic and noc- 
turnal. The Malay tapir is black, with the exception of 
a prominent white spot upon the rump. The young are 
spotted and striped in a beautiful manner. 
Rhinoceros (Rhinocerontide).—The animals of this 
family rank next to the elephant in point of size, and are 
peculiar to Africa, India, and adjacent islands. They are 
extremely bulky, with bodies covered with a naked, armor- 
like skin deposited in folds. They have incisors in both 
jaws; upon the muzzle grow one or two horns two or 
three feet long, composed of agglutinated, hair-like fibers, 
having no connection with the bone, and in some species 
being movable. 
The Indian rhinoceros (2. Zudicus) is one of the most 
powerful, being nearly ten feet long, and attaining a weight 
of three tons. They have a single horn, sometimes three 
feet long, that forms a formidable weapon. The Sumatran 
species has two horns. 
