CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 11. P AGH YDERM ATA. 643 
THE DINOTHEEIUM. 
except at night. It frequently breaks into the cultivated grounds in large herds, when the 
destruction caused by their dcA^ouring the melons and other fruits, as well as by the trampling of 
so many heavy feet, is often yer)'^ serious. 
The second South American species, T. Roidinl or T. villosm, is but little known ; it diffei's from 
the preceding in being smaller and nearly black, and having longer hair. It is found upon the 
Andes of Colombia and Peru, at a considerable elevation, but sometimes mingles with the other 
S2:)ecies. It is this which has given rise to a fabulous animal called Pinchaque, which figures in 
the South American legends, as inhabiting the lofty mountain peaks of JS"ew Grenada. 
The Indian Tapir, T. Indicus or T. bicolor, the Maiha of F. Guvier, is larger than either of 
the American species, measuring seven or eight feet in length. It is remarkable for its color- 
ing, the anterior portion and the legs being black, while all the hinder parts of the body are 
white. In its habits it appears to resemble the other species. It has only been found hitherto 
in Sumatra, Malacca, and Borneo; but from Chinese books and figures it is supposed that it also 
exists in some part of China. It appears to have given rise to the popular Chinese superstition 
as to the miraculous animal called J/e, which is said to have the truidc of the elephant, the eyes 
of the rhinoceros, and the feet of the tiger, and. which gnaws fire and brass, and feeds on mon- 
strous serpents. 
Fossil Tapirid^?:. — l^early allied to the tapirs, and intermediate between them and the swine, 
is a remarkable group of fossil animals, the remains of wdiich are found abundantly in the gypsum 
beds of Paris. In the form of the skull they resembled the tapirs, and as the nasal bones are 
strongly arched, they were doubtless furnished with a short proboscis. The structure of the 
incisor and canine teeth is also the same as in the tapirs; but the molars were very different in 
form. All the feet had three toes, which were nearly equal in length. These animals form the 
genus Lophiodon, the Palceotherium of Guvier; their size was sometimes small, but some of the 
species were as large as a horse. The names assigned to some of these species are Lisirwdon, 
Tapirulus, Corypliodon, &c. 
Until recently the mammoth and the mastodon were supposed to be the largest of all the ter- 
