Observations on the tapir of America / [William Yarrell].

  • Yarrell, William, 1784-1856
Date:
[1829]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the tapir of America / [William Yarrell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Art. XXII. Observations on the Tapir of America, By William Yarrlll^ JBsq,, F.L.S. The animal which afforded an opportunity for the following remarks was presented to the Zoological Society, in the month of July last, by Lieutenant Maw of the Royal Navy, but unfortunately for the interests of' science, as well as of the society, it was so far reduced by disease on its arrival in the river, as to survive its removal to the garden in the Regent’s Park only a few hours; but little therefore could be ascertained of its disposition, beyond that of its submitting without any resistance to the applications that were made for its relief. When dead, the whole length of the animal from the nose to the root of the tail was 48 inches; the girth 35 inches; and it was said to be about 12 months old. Its colour was a rusty reddish brown, with indications of lighter spots and horizontal lines on the ribs, flanks and thighs. These fawn-coloured spots and stripes are common to both species of Tapir while young; that of Sumatra not exhibiting, till it is six months old, any appearance of the well defined black and white colour which afterwards distinguishes the adult animal. The shape is well known. The incisor teeth very much used, the edges coming into close contact when the molars act. The canines -f those of the upper jaw small, and removed a short distance from the lateral incisor, to admit the interposition of the larger canines of the lower jaw. The molars in this young animal were : of those in the lower jaw, the first has three lobes, with five points; the second and third two lobes, with four points. Of the four in the upper jaw, the first has two outer, and one inner point; the other three molars have each two lobes with four points; all the parallel points or tubercles are connected trans¬ versely by a slight triangular ridge; each of these triangular ridges, with their connected tubercles, shutting into similarly shaped cavities in