TEETH OF MALAYAN TAPIR.
With regard to other portions of the skeleton nothing need be remarked, except that the bones of the extremities are exceedingly strong, and resemble in many respects those of the Rhinoceros.
Three species of Tapirs are known, namely, American Tapir (Tapirus americanus), Roulin’s Tapir (Tapirus villosus), and Asiatic Tapir (Tapirus malayanus).
THE AMERICAN TAPIR.[263]—Of the three foregoing species the best known is the American Tapir, which is found in almost all parts of South America from Buenos Ayres to Central America, and from the Andes to the Atlantic. In its habits it is nocturnal, spending the whole of the day-time in the cool shades of the densest forests, and coming forth to feed on the surrounding vegetation as evening approaches. It is a most powerful animal, and everything in the underwood of the forest gives way to its rush. It has the habit of making runs or roads through the brushwood, which beaten tracks are usually selected by travellers in passing through the forests. It is stated that it has a most keen sense of smell, enabling it to detect its enemies at long distances, when it at once rushes into brushwood or thicket so dense that neither man nor horse can follow. It never attacks man without being very hardly pressed and brought to bay.
AMERICAN TAPIRS.
It is excessively fond of the water, being a most expert swimmer, and usually keeping to a particular track in the element in which it indulges.
The American species is characterised by having the general colour throughout of a deep brown, approaching to black; but the sides of the lower lip, band on the under and middle part of the chin, upper edges of the ears, and naked line at the bottom of the hoofs, are snowy white. The scanty hair of the body is very short, and is hardly to be distinguished at a comparatively short distance.
The skin, which is of great density beneath, is described by M. Roulin to be not less than seven lines thick on the back; and he says that in the days when rifles were not brought to their present pitch of perfection a ball from one of them would scarcely make an impression.
On the back of the neck there is a thick rounded crest, which extends from the forehead, as low as the level of the eyes, to the shoulders, and beset with a comparatively thin mane of stiff blackish bristles.