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LINNAZZUS AND THE TAPIR 
the others being subsidiary and arranged on either side 
of it. On the other hand, in the cow tribe, or Artio- 
dactyle, there are two fingers or toes symmetrical with 
regard to each other, and lying on either side of the 
median axis, which passes between them. Different 
though the outward form of the tapir is to both its 
living relations, a survey of extinct types of all kinds 
shows a group or groups in the past with nebulous out- 
lines fading away at the edges into both horse-like 
creature and unmistakable tapirs. The mountain cow, 
as this animal by another misnomer is sometimes 
termed, is called, after Linneus, Tapirus terrestris. 
The specific name terrestris had, but has not, a point. 
Linneus placed the tapir with the hippopotamus, and 
distinguished one as “ amphibius’”’ from the other as 
“terrestris,” names signifying their varied modes of 
life. As a matter of fact, the tapir is quite at home 
in the water, and prefers marshy surroundings. De 
Buffon terms him with some reason “a dull and gloomy 
animal who never stirs out but in the night.” The 
French naturalist also comments, apropos of the tapir, 
upon the poverty-stricken appearance of the fauna of 
South America, as compared with Asia and Africa. It 
is true now as it was when Buffon wrote, that no very 
large beasts haunt the forests or plains of the South 
American continent, but we no longer believe that this 
is due to ‘‘something in the air.” At the Zoo the 
tapir is a constant resident. Its mobile and even 
flexible proboscis cannot really be compared with that 
of the elephant, to which it apparently bears an exact 
resemblance, differentiated only by its smaller size. 
But the Roman-nosed “ Shire”? horse has a trace of a 
similar proboscis in its fleshy and arched nose, which 
overhangs more than in the Arab race. The proboscis, 
in fact, is not a mark of likeness to the elephant, between 
which and the tapir there is no relationship other than 
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