MAMMALIA-ELEPHANT. 



287 



He has a quick ear, and this organ is outwardly, like that of smell- 

 ing, more marked in the elephant than in any other animal ; his ears are 

 very large, even in proportion to his body ; they are flat, and close to the 

 head, like those of a man ; they commonly hang down, but he raises them 

 up, and moves them with great facility ; he makes use of them to wipe his 

 eyes, and to cover them against the inconveniency of dust and flies. He 

 delights in the sound of instruments, and seems to like music ; he' soon 

 learns to beat time, and to move accordingly ; he seems animated by the 

 beat of the drum and the sound of trumpets; he has an exquisite smell, and 

 is passionately fond of perfumes of all sorts, and of fragrant flowers ; he 

 selects them one after another, and makes nosegays, which he smells with 

 eagerness, and then carries them to his mouth as if he intended to taste 

 them. 



His sense of feeling centres in his trunk ; but it is as delicate and as 

 distinct in that sort of hand as in that of man ; this trunk, composed of 

 membranes, nerves, and muscles, is, at the same time, a member capable 

 of motion, and an organ of sense; the animal can not only move and bend 

 it, but he can shorten, lengthen, and turn it all ways. The extremity 'of 

 this trunk terminates by an edge, which projects above like a finger; it is 

 with this sort of finger that the elephant does whatever we do with ours , 

 he picks up from the ground the smallest pieces of money ; he gathers nuts 

 and flowers, choosing them one after another; he unties knots, opens and 

 shuts doors, turning the keys, and bolts them ; he learns to draw regular 

 characters with an instrument as small as a pen. 



