90 
NATURE NOTES. 
After I had had her about a year, she rather suddenly took 
on the colouring of the adult tapir. The soft brown fur which 
she was covered with became darker and more scanty, and the 
yellow spots disappeared, the tips of her ears became white, and 
from the centre of her back to her tail she was of a greyish 
white. Eventually she was entirely black except the tips of her 
ears, and the greyish white saddle. Her eyes became darker 
in colour and her trunk longer. She was now as big as a good- 
sized pig, and much too heavy to lift ; still as good-tempered 
as ever, she became more sluggish in the day-time. In the 
early morning she went out to feed on the grass and bushes, 
but at nine o’clock usually returned and . slept under a tree till 
the evening, when she became lively again ; and so she lived 
happily till one day it was noticed that she was rather thin and 
disinclined to move, and a few days after, on returning from her 
swim in the lake, she lay down beneath a tree to sleep, and was 
found dead half-an-hour afterwards, to my great sorrow. A 
post-mortem disclosed that she had died of a rapid consumption, 
a disease peculiarly fatal to tapirs. 
In a wild state the IMalay tapir haunts the thickest jungles, 
and as these are gradually cleared it will, sooner or later, 
become extinct, indeed, it is wonderful how so defenceless an 
animal has existed so long in a country abounding in such 
ferocious beasts as the tiger and black panther. The tiger, 
however, is comparatively rare in the forests of the mountain 
slopes where the tapir delights to live. The colouring of 
the animal, and the speed with which it dashes off when 
disturbed are its only means of protection. The little one 
with its brown coat spotted with yellow so much resembles the 
ground flecked with sunlight falling through the foliage, that 
it is quite inconspicuous when sleeping in the jungle, and might 
easily be overlooked by a prowling beast of prey ; while the 
adult, while at rest, with its greyish white back, looks, at a 
little distance, like one of the grey granite boulders by the 
rocky streams where it loves to lie. Henry N. Ridley. 
SPRING. 
The throstle calls from yonder wood, 
The earth is sweet, and fair, and good : 
The throstle calls from yonder wood ! 
Wee lambkins lie in meadows green. 
And Spring to them is life, I ween : 
Wee lambkins lie in meadows green ! 
The sorrel lifts her dainty head ; 
With tender green the earth is spread. 
Where sorrel lifts her dainty head ! 
The winter’s past, young Spring is here; 
Farewell to all that’s old and sear : 
The winter’s past, young Spring is here ! 
S. S. 
