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be seen in the hog, strikes the observer forcibly. But the pyramid of the Tapir differs from that of the hog in having only three faces; and also in this, that its anterior line is formed by the meeting of the lateral faces, and it is only towards the front that it is dilated into a triangle, which is due to the frontal bones: these are early united and directed a little backwards. At the middle of the base of this triangle, to which the bones of the nose are articulated, is a point which penetrates between them; and from the two sides above the orbits descends a deep furrow produced by the structure of the upper border of the orbit, and which approaches towards the suborbital hole: it serves for the insertion of the muscles of the proboscis. The orbit descends lower than the mid-height of the head, is very wide, and has the post orbital apophyses but little

marked.

That part of the cranium which is in the temporal fossa is convex. The occiput is a small demi-oval extremely concave plate, because the occipital crest projects considerably backwards in a parabolic shape. The occipital bone ascends on the cranium. The frontal bones descend largely in the temple, and are there articulated with the lachrymal, the palatine, the two sphenoids, and the temporal bone. The parietals are square, very large, occupying a great portion of the sagittal crest, and united also early between them. The nasal bones are no less striking than the form of the cranium. They are very short, articulated to the frontals by their base, and to those of the jaws by a descending apophysis; but they are free and projecting, forming a kind of triangular penthouse above the cavity of the nostrils. This structure, which reminds the observer of that of the elephant, indicates the presence of a moveable proboscis. The aperture of the osseous nostrils thus becomes extremely long, nearly horizontal, and bordered in great part by the maxillary bones, which advance well beyond the bones of the nose, to form the projecting part of the muzzle, they carry the intermaxillary bones which (a remarkable thing, observes Cuvier) were anchylosed together in the individual examined by him, although it was very young, and consequently formed but a single bone, and Cuvier remarked the same conformation in other crania. It was only in a nascent tapir, when no tooth had come forth, that he found the suture which separates the maxillaries from each other. These same intermaxillaries form a ceiling under the orbit. The lower border of the orbit and the half of the arch are due to the os male, or jugal bone; the rest to the temporal bone. The zygomatic arch is curved downwards at its anterior portion, and upwards at its posterior portion: it projects moderately outwards. The os unguis, or lachrymal bone, touches the malar bone, and advances a little on the cheek, and moderately in the orbit. There are two lachrymal bones in the very border of the orbit, separated by an apophysis, the upper of which is the largest. The suborbital hole is oval, rather large, and at a little distance in front of the suture, which unites the jugal and the lachrymal to the maxillary bone. The incisive hole is elliptical and very long, in great part, in the maxillary. The posterior nasal fosse notch the palate towards the fifth molar. The suture which separates the palatine from the maxillary bone corresponds with the third. The palatine bones contribute much to the pterygoid ale, and the sphenoid very little these ale are short and truncate, with a small hook which represents the internal pterygoid wing, and which remains for a considerable time a detached bone. The sphenoid bone does not reach the parietal in the temporal fossa, but remains separated from it by the squamose portion. The palatine bone there forms a long and narrow tract, which proceeds forward for the length of the upper border of the maxillary bone up to the suborbital canal. Behind the glenoid cavity of the temporal bone, which is very large, is a semicircular lamina, descending vertically and directing itself forwards and inwards: it interrupts the lateral and posterior motion of the lower jaw. Between this lamina and the mastoid apophysis is a rather narrow notch where the meatus auditorius internus is found. The mastord apophysis descends as low as this lamina. It reaches the temporal bone by its anterior tubercle, and the occipital by its point. The hole analogous to the spheno-palatine is in the middle of the orbital tract of the palatine bone. The analogue of the pterygo-palatine bone is below it, on the suture of the palatine with the maxillary bone. The

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optic foramen is small, and placed on the suture of the frontal and of the anterior sphenoid bones. The sphenoorbital and round foramina are only separated from each other by a delicate lamina. There is a rather large vidian canal. The oval hole is confounded with the anterior and posterior apertures, so that a great portion of the petrous bone is separated from the sphenoid and basilary by a space. The tympanic bone does not appear to be ever anchylosed with the neighbouring bones, and falls easily, as in the hedgehog, the opossum, &c.

The lower jaw exhibits a striking width at its ascending ramus, and presents a rounded contour backwards at its posterior angle. Its coronoid apophysis elevates itself in the form of a pointed falx above the condyle, which is transverse and large. The two jaws are a little concave laterally at the vacant interval of the teeth, and are very much narrowed there; their edge is trenchant.

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Skull of American Tapir.

Bones of the Neck and Trunk. -The lateral apophyses of the atlas are wide, but little extended outwards: the spinous process of the axis is an elevated crest; the transverse processes are small and irregular; the odontoid is large and obtuse; the transverse processes of the three succeeding vertebræ descend obliquely, are a little widened at the end and cut nearly square; their spinous processes are very small. The fifth cervical vertebra has a small apophysis on its transverse process, which, for the rest, resembles that of the preceding vertebræ, but is rather longer: its spinous process is also rather longer; still more is that of the seventh vertebra, the transverse process of which is very small-in short, a simple tubercle. The articular facets of the cervical vertebræ rise obliquely from within outwards, so that the articular facet of one vertebra is below that which responds to the preceding vertebra. The bodies of the vertebræ are convex forward and concave behind, an organization which is more or less repeated in the rest of the spine. The number of dorsal vertebræ amounts to twenty; the spinous apophysis of the second is the longest. They decrease and incline backwards to the eleventh, from which they become straight, square, and nearly equal. Their articular apophyses are so fitted that those of one vertebra are in advance and above those which correspond with it in the vertebra below. Cuvier found twenty pairs of ribs in one individual, nineteen in another, eight of which are true, all slender and rounded for the greatest part of their length. The breastbone is composed of five bones: its anterior portion is compressed, and projects in the form of a ploughshare. There are four lumbar vertebræ, the transverse apophyses of which are rather large. Those of the last, which are rather shorter and oblique, are articulated with the first sacral vertebra. These transverse apophyses have on their base the same elevated crests as the dorsals have for articulation with the ribs.

The os sacrum of the adult consists of seven vertebræ, the spinous apophyses of which are distinct and inclined backwards; the five last of these apophyses are short and terminate by a widened disk. The tail has seven vertebrææ.

Bones of the Extremities.-The blade-bone has a strong semicircular notch towards the lower part of its anterior border; the rest of this border is round as well as the upper border: the posterior border makes an angle upwards and then descends a little concave. There is neither acromion nor coracoid process, if a hook-like process be excepted. The spine of the bone terminates at the lower third of it, its greatest projection is at its middle; the articular surface is oval and higher than it is long. This

blade-bone, says Cuvier, emphatically, and not more emphatically than truly, cannot be confounded with that of any other animal.

The head of the humerus is powerful, behind the axis of the bone. Its large tuberosity is bilobated by a rounded notch; its bicipital canal is simple and not wide; the ridge is little marked; the condyles do not project much. The radial articular face is divided by a projecting rib into an entire pulley on the internal side, and the half of

one on the external side; both the one and the other correspond to projections of the radius, so that this last has no rotation. It is even probable, observes Cuvier, that with age it is anchylosed to the ulna, which remains throughout its length on the external edge of the arm. The upper head of the radius is nearly rectangular; its body, rounded in front, is flattened behind. The body of the ulna is triangular. One of its crests follows the external crest of the radius.

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The carpus of the Tapir bears a near resemblance to that of the RHINOCEROS, especially in having, like it, a single small bone articulated with the wedge-shaped and unciform bones, in lieu of the trapezoid and thumb; but this bone is articulated with the metatarsal bone of the index, which is not the case in the rhinoceros. The other bones of the wrist are nearly of the same form, excepting that their width is less in proportion to their height, a condition which is true even with regard to the unciform bone, although it has to carry two complete metacarpals, whilst in the rhinoceros it only carries one and the vestige of another. The pisiform bone is also longer in proportion in the Tapir. The metacarpal of the middle finger is longest and straightest; those of the index and ringfinger are curved nearly symmetrically one with reference to the other, as in the rhinoceros. But the Tapir has also one small, short, and rather irregular metacarpal. The three first fingers are those which touch the earth, and their ungual phalanges resemble those of the rhinoceros; the little finger does not touch the ground. The first phalanges are longer than they are wide, but the contrary is the case with regard to the second.

The widened part of the ossa ilii is very broad transversely, and a little concave outwards. The external edge of this bone is larger than the internal one; the anterior border is largely concave, and the two spines are, as it were, truncated; its neck is narrow, with reference to its length; the oval holes are longer than they are wide, and the posterior extremity of the ischium terminates in a point very distant from its correspondent. The anterior passage of the pelvis is as long as it is wide, and nearly circular.

The femur has its great trochanter pointed, forming a projection backwards, and giving off a rib which descends along the external border. Besides the two ordinary trochanters, there is a third, which is flattened and recurved in front. In these points its resemblance to that of the horse is perceptible, but it differs much in having the two borders of the rotular pulley nearly equal. The fibula is curved outwards, which separates it a little from the tibia: this last has its upper head rather marked, but the tuberosity which terminates this end above is obtuse and curved but little. Its lower head is wider than it is long, is oblique, and its antero-posterior diameter on the

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internal side is wider, and this border more projecting than that of the fibular side.

The tarsus of the Tapir is still better modelled than its carpus after that of the rhinoceros, of which it seems to be only a repetition: only the os calcis is much more elongated and more compressed; but its facets are the same. The neck of the astragalus is longer and touches the cuboid bone by a narrower facet. There is no vestige of a hind toe, but the little finger is represented by an elongated bone, bent at the end, articulated to the scaphoid, to the small cuneiform and the external metatarsal bones. The posterior tubercle of the cuboid bone is less projecting and less hooked than in the rhinoceros. (Ossemens Fossiles.)

Cuvier, in his osteological comparison of the Indian Tapir with the American form, observes that a glance at the profile of their respective crania is sufficient to impress upon the observer their specific differences. The forehead of the Indian Tapir is, he observes, so convex, that it rises higher than the occiput: it elevates in its rise the nasal bones, which much prolongs the ascending part of the jaws and the descending portion of the frontal bones along the external aperture of the bony nostrils, thus giving much wider room for the comparatively large proboscis, and adding length to the furrows where the muscles are inserted. This organization, he observes, explains why the Indian Tapir has a more powerful and extensible trunk than that of America. There is even, he adds, in the Indian species, on the base of the nasal bones at their junetion with the frontal bones, and on each side, a deep fossa which does not exist in the other species. This elevation of the forehead is accompanied by a depression of the occipital crest, which, far from forming a pyramid, as in the American species, rather descends backwards. The aperture of the bony nostrils, so enlarged by the prolongtion of the maxillary bones, terminates below and forwards by more elevated intermaxillaries, which are for the rest anchylosed together in early youth as in the American Tapir.

The interval between the canine and the first molar is less in proportion in the Indian Tapir, whose dentition is otherwise the same with that of the American species.

The zygomatic apophysis of the Indian species is a little higher backward and less forward: its masteid apophysis is more transversally turned.

The occipital surface of the skull offers a difference corresponding to that of the profile, inasmuch as it is less high, but it is also much wider in proportion; and from this width results another difference in the upper surface of the cranium, namely, that the sagittal crest, instead of remaining throughout its length linear and narrow, widens much backwards, and even remains rather wide at the point where it is most narrowed by the approximation of the two temporal fossæ. The triangle which these two fossæ leave in front upon the frontal bones is also wider and its surface more convex. The triangle formed by the true bones of the nose is wider at its base. For the rest, the composition of the cranium, the connexion of its bones, its sutures, its foramina, entirely resemble, as well as the teeth, those of the American species.

Cuvier then remarks that the rest of the skeleton of the two species does not offer such appreciable differences. The blade-bone of the Indian species is rather the wider; but the notch towards the lower part is smaller and rounder. The anterior hook of the great tuberosity of the humerus is more projecting; the unciform bone of the carpus is narrower; the last phalanges of the middle anterior toe are wider and more rounded, and the same may be said of the middle toe of the hind feet; the great trochanter of the femur is larger; the neck of the astragalus is shorter but all these differences, Cuvier observes, are of so little importance, that, without those of the crania, they would hardly justify the conclusion of specific distinction. (Ossemens Fossiles.)

Mr. Yarrell, in the 4th vol. of the Zoological Journal, gives an account of the post-mortem appearances in an American Tapir brought to this country by Lieut. Maw, R.N., which survived its arrival in the gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park only a few

hours.

When dead, the animal, which was said to be about twelve months old, measured from the nose to the root of the tail 48 inches, and its girth was 35 inches. The incisor teeth were very much used; the edges coming into close contact when the molars are in action. The canines

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left: they were inflamed. The pericardium, which was loaded with fat, was of unusual thickness; but the heart presented nothing remarkable: the coats of the arteries were particularly thick and firm.

The esophagus was narrow: the stomach presented a single cavity, rather small, measuring, when moderately distended with air, 8 inches only from right to left, and 153 inches in circumference: the parietes were thickened about the pylorus, but the internal surface was not examined, the organ having been preserved entire it contained a loose mass of tow, hair, string, and shreds of cloth.

The spleen was narrow, thin, and 12 inches long. The liver was divided into four lobes :-two, one large and one small, on the right side; and two, large and equal, on the left; the lower of these last was divided and notched on the edge. There was no gall-bladder.

The small intestines, uniform in size throughout their length, measured 21 feet, and were inflamed. The cæcum was capacious compared with the stomach, measuring 14 inches in the line of its long axis, and 24 inches in girth at the largest part, and had two deep and several smaller circular indentations externally, and marked with one strong longitudinal band on each surface; tapering somewhat to a point at its closed extremity, but without any appendix vermiformis. The colon, at two feet from its commencement, doubled suddenly upon itself, and formed a fold 16 inches long, the inner surfaces of which were closely connected. The large intestines measured seven feet in length.

The sexual organs (the animal was a female) presented about the uterus, its cornua, and the ovaria, a degree of vascularity which rendered it probable that the period of life was approaching when breeding would have commenced.

Mr. Yarrell refers to Sir Everard Home's paper in Phil. Trans. (1821), in which Sir Everard points out the differences existing in the skulls of the Sumatran and American Tapirs, and has described a part of the viscera of the former. In the Sumatran Tapir the stomach is large, the intestinal canal very long, and the cæcum small; in the American Tapir the stomach is small, the intestines of moderate length, and the cæcum large.

were small in the upper jaw, and removed a short 1-1 distance from the lateral incisor, for the admission of the 4-4 larger canines of the lower jaw; the molars were 3-3 Of those in the lower jaw, the first had three lobes, with five points; the second and third two lobes, with four points. Of the four upper molars, the first had two outer and one inner point; the other three had each two lobes with four points: all the parallel points or tubercles were connected transversely by a slight triangular ridge; and each of these triangular ridges, with their connected tubercles, shut into similarly shaped cavities in the teeth opposed to them, throughout the whole length of their continuous surfaces. The second, third, and fourth upper molars had each a small additional but less elevated point on the external anterior angle, increasing somewhat in size from the second tooth backwards. On cutting through the bones of the palate in order to the complete No. 1217 of the same series is a section of the kidney of removal of the brain, Mr. Yarrell found the crown of a Tapir (Tapir Americanus), with the arteries injected, and another molar tooth on each side, posterior to, and some- the pelvis laid open to show the terminations of the tubuli what within the line of range of, the last exposed molar. uriniferi, as in the horse. No. 1286 is the suprarenal gland This tooth had a fifth tubercle of increased magnitude. of an American Tapir laid open, showing the central darkThe cartilage of the septum narium was thick and strong, coloured substance very distinctly. No. 2778 exhibits part and the central ridge of the skull very much elevated. of the vagina, with the urethro-sexual canal, vulva, and The ligamentum nucha was composed of three strong clitoris of the American Tapir, in which the clitoris procord-like portions, two of which, passing in a parallel jects within the anterior margin of the vulva: it is a short direction from the elongated spinous process of the first pyramidal body with two small lateral lobes. The urethrovertebra, were inserted together upon the extreme supe-sexual canal is separated from the vagina by a broad rior posterior angle of the central ridge of the cranium, supporting the whole length of the elevated crest and mane. The third portion of this strong ligament passed between the other two, and was inserted into the more elevated portion of the elongated spinous process of the dentata.

Mr. Yarrell adds, that, of the species described,

The length of the Sumatran Tapir is eight feet; and the whole length of its intestinal canal is 89 feet 6 inches. Proportion as 11 to 1.

The length of the American Tapir is four feet; and the whole length of its intestinal canal 28 feet. Proportion, as 7 to 1.

In the Physiological Series, preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, No. 754, is the anus of an American Tapir, in which, as in the ordinary mammalia, the intestinal canal has a distinct external orifice, situated behind, and not, as in the osseous fishes, in front of the genito-urinary outlet. Professor Owen, the author of the Catalogue, remarks that this example of the mammiferous type of anus is preserved on account of the peculiar jagged appearance and abrupt termination of the common integument at the verge of the anus.

The anterior portion of the sternum was keel-like and rounded in shape, and projected forwards. There were twenty ribs on each side and four lumbar vertebræ. The tracheal cartilages were firm: the rings however were incomplete throughout. One large and one small lobe Irmed the right lung; one large and two small ones the P. C., No. 1494.

transverse semilunar fold, beneath which is the wide aperture of the urethra. No. 2527 B, is the distal extremity of the penis of the Sumatran Tapir. The upper and lateral parts of the base of the glans present three rounded processes, beyond which the extremity of the glans is continued forwards, and terminates in a large truncate slightly convex surface, in the middle of which is situated the orifice of the urethra.

Generic Character.-Molars presenting on their crown before they are worn, two transverse and rectilineal tubercles (collines). Nose terminated in a small moveable pro boscis, but not terminated with an organ of touch like that VOL. XXIV.-H

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Up to the year 1816 it appears to have been thought that the Tapir form was confined to America, and the species known in collections as the American Tapir seems to have been regarded as the only example of the genus. M. Lesson, who so sweepingly claims the discovery of the Asiatic species for French naturalists, is not the only zoologist of that country who puts forth such pretensions. Mr. Bennett has thus corrected those pretensions:-

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man; much less is the fact suffered to transpire that onz
before M. Diard had "discovered" it, not in the forests of
Sumatra or the Malayan Peninsula, but in the menagerie
of the Governor-general of British India at Barrackpore, s
full description, together with a figure of the animal and
of its skull, had been laid before the Asiatic Society by
Major Farquhar, for publication in their Researches
This latter circumstance, it is true, was not mentioned by
M. Frederick Cuvier when he figured the tapir of Malacca
in his splendid work, from a drawing made by M. Dand
in the Barrackpore menagerie, or by that gentleman rum
self in the published part of his accompanying letter,
but there seems to have been no intention on their parts
wilfully to mislead their readers. That M. Diard at least
could not have been actuated by any such desire is fully
proved by several passages in the note appended by h
to Major Farquhar's original description, in which he
speaks of the gallant officer as "the excellent naturain
who has enriched zoology with so important a discovery;"
and attributes the "honour" to him "alone." Baron Cuvier
too, in the recent edition of his Règne Animal,' silent.y
rejects the unmerited distinction in favor of his stepson
and friend; and candidly quotes, as the first describer,
our, in this instance, more fortunate countryman. After
this, we trust that we shall hear no more of the "discovery"
of the Indian tapir by MM. Diard and Duvaucel, who
have too many real claims on the consideration of 200-
logists to require to be tricked out in the borrowed plumer
with which it has hitherto been the fashion among our
neighbours to invest them.' (The Gardens and Menageru
of the Zoological Society delineated, vol. i.)

Dr. Horsfield states that the first intelligence of the existence of this interesting animal in Sumatra was given to the government of Fort Marlborough at Bencoolen, in the year 1772, by Mr. Whalfeldt, who was employed in making a survey of the coast. In the month of April in that year, it is, according to Dr. Horsfield, noticed in the records, that Mr. Whalfeldt laid before the government his observations on the places southward of Cawoor, where he met with the tapir at the mouth of one of the rivers. He considered it to be the hippopotamus, and described it by that name; but the drawing which accompanied the report identifies it, says the Doctor, with the tapir. D. Horsfield adds that this mistake in the name may read be explained, when it is recollected that in the terrá edition of the Systema Naturæ' of Linnæus the tape a placed as a species of hippopotamus, while in the twelta edition no mention is made of that animal.

The learned author of the History of Sumatra,' Walliam Marsden, Esq.,' continues Dr. Horsfield, was at that time secretary to the government at Bencoolen; and the public owes to his zeal in collecting every valuable intermation relating to that island the first notice of the exist ence of this animal, which is by the Malays in many places denominated Kuda-ayer, literally hippo-potam s. After the first discovery, in 1772, the tapir was not observed for a considerable period. From the same catalogue of Sir T. S. Raffles which has furnished the description, it appears that in the year 1805 a living specimen was sent to Sir George Leith, when lieutenant-governor of Penang. It was afterwards observed by Major Farquhar in the vicinity of Malacca. A drawing and description of it were communicated by him to the Asiatic Society in 1816, and a living subject was afterwards sent to the menagerie al Barrackpore from Bencoolen. At this place a drawing was made by M. Diard in the year 1818, which, accompanied by an extract from the description of Major Far quhar, was communicated to his friends in Paris, where, in March, 1819, M. Fred. Cuvier published it in his large lithographic work on the mammalia of the menagene in Paris.'

Some vague notices had reached Sir Stamford Raffles of the existence of a similar animal in Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula; but to Major Farquhar belongs the credit of having first procured a specimen and submitted its description to the world at large. The history of this transaction affords too striking an illustration of the injustice of certain among the French zoologists to the merits of our countrymen to be passed over without observation. "The knowledge of this animal in France," says M. Desmarest, in his Mammalogie,' carefully shielding himself In the month of September, 1820, the first specimen of under an equivocal form of expression, "is due to M. the Malayan tapir was received in England from S Diard." But M. Lesson goes farther; and echoing, as usual, Thomas Stamford Raffles, with the general zoological culthe dieta of his predecessor with a slight addition of his lection of mammalia and birds, the descriptive catalogue own, speaks of the Indian tapir as a species "discovered by of which, being contained in the 13th vol. of the Trans M. Diard." Again, in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Na- actions of the Linnean Society,' has been already rete.rod turelles,' M. Desmarest, forgetful of his former caution, to. This specimen of tapir was accompanied by a comheightens the farce still more by asserting that its "dis- plete skeleton, and the thoracic and abdominal viscera covery in the forests of Sumatra and the Peninsula of Ma-preserved in spirits of wine.' Dr. Horsfield then refers to lacca is due to MM. Duvaucel and Diard." In none of the use made by Sir Everard Home of these materials a these works is the least indication given that the animal the paper above alluded to. in question. had previously been even seen by an English

• Calling him Farkharie' nowever.

A living specimen of this species was lately brought to this country, and publicly exhibited in the garden of the Zoological Society of London, where it died more than a year ago.

Description of Tapirus Malayanus-Tapirus Indicus of the French zoologists; Le Maiba, F. Cuv., Mamm.:-The Malay Tapir resembles in form the American, and has a similar flexible proboscis, which is six or eight inches in length. Its general appearance is heavy and massive, somewhat resembling the hog. The eyes are small; the ears roundish, and bordered with white. The skin is thick and firm, thinly covered with short hair. There is no mane on the neck, as in the American species. The tail is very short, and almost destitute of hair. The legs are short and stout; the fore-feet furnished with four toes, the hind-feet with three. In the upper jaw there are seven molars on each side, one small canine inserted exactly on the suture of the incisor bone, and in front six incisors, the two outer of which are elongated into tusks. In the under jaw there are but six molars; the canines are large; and the number of the incisors, the outer of which are the smallest, is the same as in the upper jaw. The general colour is glossy black, with the exception of the back, rump, and sides of the belly, which are white, and separated by a defined line from the parts that are black.'

Such is the description of Sir Stamford Raffles, for the accuracy of which we can vouch, having compared it with the living animal in the garden of the Zoological Society. Major Farquhar describes a young Tapir of this species which he had alive in his house thus:-'It appears that

| until the age of four months it is black, and beautifully marked with spots and stripes of a fawn colour above and white below. After that period it began to change colour, the spots disappeared, and at the age of six months it had become of the usual colour of the adult.' (See post, American Tapirs.)

Marsden, as we have already seen, notices the animal as the Hippopotamus; coodo-ayer. In Sumatra, according to Sir Stamford Raffles, it is known by different names in different parts of the country: thus by the people of Limun it is called Saladang; by those of the interior of Manna, Gindol; in the interior of Bencoolen, Babi Alu; and at Malacca, Tennu.

Habits.-The habits of this species in a state of nature are probably similar to those of the American Tapirs. In captivity, Major Farquhar describes it as of a mild and gentle disposition. It became as tame and familiar as a dog; fed indiscriminately on all kinds of vegetables, and was very fond of attending at table to receive bread, cakes, or the like.' Sir Stamford Raffles adds that the living specimen sent from Bencoolen to Bengal was young, and became very tractable. It was allowed to roam occasionally in the park at Barrackpore, and the man who had charge of it informed Sir Stamford that it frequently entered the ponds, and appeared to walk along the bottom under water, and not to make any attempt to swim. Sir Stamford also states that the flesh is eaten by the natives of Sumatra.

The individual exhibited in the Regent's Park was very mild and gentle.

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AMERICAN TAPIRS.

Tapir Malayanus.

John de Laet (1633), speaking of the province of Verapaz, says that among the living quadrupeds which are there found the greatest is that which the barbarians call Beori, and the Spaniards Danta, an animal not unlike a calf, but with shorter legs and articulated after the manner of an elephant's; the anterior feet have, he states, five toes or hoofs, the posterior only four. The head he describes as oblong, the forehead rather narrow, the eyes Small in proportion to the bulk, and the proboscis as being a palm long and pendulous above the mouth. When the animal is angry, he states that it erects itself, and grinning shows its teeth, which are like those of hogs. The ears he describes as acute, the neck contracted, the tail short and with few hairs, the skin very thick, so that it may with difficulty be grasped by the hand or perforated by iron. It feeds, he says, on grass and sylvan herbage. The

natives, he adds, eat its flesh, and relate that they are taught venesection by this animal, for when it finds itself overloaded with blood, by rubbing against rocks it opens the veins of the legs and lets blood. There can be no doubt that the animal here meant is one of the American Tapirs.

Marcgrave gives a very rude figure, not however to be mistaken for anything but a Tapir, under the name of Tapiereté, Anta of the Spaniards, describing it and its habits with considerable general accuracy; but Mr. Bennett observes that he speaks of the teeth as consisting of ten incisors and ten molars in each jaw, an error which Mr. Bennett remarks held its ground for nearly two centuries, and having passed successively through the writings of Ray, Brisson, Buffon, Gmelin, and Blumenbach, was first corrected by Geoffroy St. Hilaire.

Towards the close of last century the fabulous clouds

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