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THE STORY OF THE TAPIR. 
In South America I shot any number of that queer animal which forms 
the connecting link between the elephant and the hog, which bears a close 
resemblance to a rhinoceros and which is called a tapir. The snout is length¬ 
ened into a kind of proboscis, or trunk, like the elephant’s but is compara¬ 
tively short. 
It was my fortune to witness the method by which the jaguar kills a 
tapir, for next to man the big spotted cat is the deadly foe of that animal. 
With my native hunters* I was following the course of a small river, 
expecting at every moment to come upon a tapir asleep. It was getting late 
in the evening and was time for the animals to be moving about in search 
of food. 
Suddenly my Indian guide put up his hand in.warning, and I took it as 
a sign that we were near the game. I stopped and peered ahead through 
the tall weeds and undergrowth, and could scarcely repress an exclamation 
of surprise at what I saw. Stretched upon the low limb of a tree near the 
river bank, was the most beautiful specimen of a jaguar I had ever seen. 
It was crouched, ready to spring, and its long tail was swaying back and 
forth. 
My gun went to my shoulder, but before I had taken aim the jaguar 
gathered itself and sprang into the reeds. At the same moment a loud 
grunt and shrill whistle broke the stillness, and a huge tapir with the jaguar 
clinging by its sharp claws to the animal’s back went tearing through the 
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