570 PROBOSCIDEA. 



are extensively ankylosed at the symphysis which forms a kind 

 of spout. In the young the air-cells are but slightly developed, 

 and the great increase in the size of the skull which takes place 

 during growth is mainly due to their development. The lacrymal 

 is small and interorbital. The frontals are produced into supra- 

 orbital processes which give off small postorbital processes. The 

 orbit is not separated from the temporal fossa. There is a broad 

 post -tympanic process which meets the posterior boundary of 

 the glenoid fossa beneath the external auditory meatus. The 

 tympanic is united with the periotic and forms a large rounded 

 bulla. There are no paroccipital or postglenoid processes. 



The vertebrae (in Elephas) are C 7, D 19-21, L 3-4, S 4, C 26- 

 33. The centra are flattened from before backwards especially in 

 the neck, and the epiphyses remain separate for some time. The 

 scapula has a long backward process from about the middle of 

 the spine (as in some Rodents) and there are no clavicles. The 

 ulna and fibula are complete and separate. The radius is fixed 

 in the prone position, crossing the ulna. The carpalia are suc- 

 cessional, and the metacarpals and phalanges are short and 

 thick. The femur is without a third trochanter, the tibia is 

 short, and the fibula articulates with the calcaneum. The 

 astragalus articulates distally with the navicular only, and is 

 remarkable for the fiatness of both its surfaces. 



The stomach is simple, and the large intestine very long, half 

 the length of the small. The apex of the ventricle is bifid. 

 There is a large caecum and no gall bladder. Primitive features 

 are shown by the presence of two superior venae cavae and by the 

 fact that the cerebellum is left entirely uncovered by the cerebrum. 

 The cerebrum, however, is large and very richly convoluted. 

 The testes remain in the abdomen close to the kidnej^s, to which 

 they are attached. The vulva is placed on the abdominal 

 smiace at some distance in front of the pubis. The uterus is 

 bicornuate and the two mammae are thoracic. The placenta 

 is zonary and the period of gestation is about twenty months, 

 but the time may be variable.* 



Elephants love dark and shady forests. They are purely 

 vegetable feeders, Hving mainly on the leaves of trees, which they 



* Dr. Chalmers Mitchell informs me that in the case of an Indian 

 elephant in the Zoological Gardens of London, the time appears to have 

 been 28 months, during 23 of which the animal was in the gardens. 



