THE AMERICAN TAPIR. 
Tapir Americanus. Gmel. 
Although the observation of BufFon, that the Tapir 
was the largest animal of the New World, has since 
been proved not to be strictly correct, yet its compara- 
tive magnitude and singular form, together with its 
wide dispersion over the Southern division of the Ame- 
rican continent, could not fail to excite the attention 
even of the earliest travellers who visited the western 
hemisphere. From almost all of these older writers we 
have received more or less imperfect accounts of this 
remarkable creature ; but it was not until the close of 
the last century that its zoological characters were 
accurately defined and its habits clearly ascertained. 
For a knowledge of the former we are indebted to 
M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, and after him to Baron 
o 
