AMERICAN TAPIR* 



455 



which was indeed very large, and straitened or 

 contracted in two places, but was still a single 

 viscus, a simple uniform stomach, opening into 

 the duodenum, and not consisting of three distinct 

 and separate stomachs, as represented in M. Ba- 

 jon's account. Yet it is not astonishing that he 

 should have fallen into this error, since one of the 

 most celebrated anatomists in Europe, Dr. Tyson, 

 of the Royal Society of London, fell into a similar 

 error in dissecting the Peccari or Tajassu of Ame- 

 rica, of which he has yet given an excellent de- 

 scription in the Philosophical Transactions. Tyson 

 assures us, as M. Bajon does with respect to the 

 Tapir, that the Peccari has three stomachs, though 

 it really has but one, parted a little, like that of 

 the Tapir, by two strictures or contractions, 

 which seem, at first, to indicate three stomachs. 

 It is therefore certain that the Tapir has only 

 one stomach, and that it is not a ruminating ani- 

 mal ; and accordingly that now under considera- 

 tion was never seen to ruminate during the time 

 of its living here; and its keepers fed it with 

 bread, grain, &c. This mistake of M. Bajon does 

 not prevent us from acknowledging that his me- 

 moir contains many excellent observations and 

 remarks. The female, he observes, is always small- 

 er than the male, and has a weaker or less pierc- 

 ing voice. One of the females which he dissected 

 was six French feet in length, and appeared never 

 to have produced young ; its teats were two in 

 number, and resembled those of the ass. The Ta- 

 pir is fa;- from deserving the name of an amphi- 



