Descriptions of East Asiatic Mammals 307 
phant eats a quarter of a ton of hay daily. If Elephants break 
into the garden patch of a native, they can destroy acres of 
produce in a single night. These animals love to bathe, entering 
and crossing quite deep rivers. They may stop in midstream, fill 
their trunks with water and spray it all over themselves. They 
are not, as a rule, preyed upon by any large animals other than 
man, but doubtless are checked in the wild state by parasitic 
diseases and epidemics. They have a life expectancy somewhat 
less than has the average American man today, fifty years being 
regarded as old. The oldest known Elephant was about eighty. 
Usually one Elephant calf is born at a time ; the mother carries 
it for 18 to 21 months before birth. The newly born calf, stand- 
ing some 3 feet high and weighing about 200 pounds, at first 
wears a coat of fairly dense woolly hairs. It is said to nurse for 
two years. Its trunk is short and imperfectly flexible ; it is not 
used in suckling. An Elephant may be considered adult, though 
not fully grown, when it is 12 to 15 years old. The greatest 
height of the male seldom exceeds 9 feet, its weight from 3% 
to 6 tons. Very old wild Elephants sometimes become outcasts 
from the herds. Some become dangerous and develop what 
amounts to mental derangement. The phenomenon known in 
India as "must" is considered related to sexual excitement 
and to increased exudation from the frontal glands of the 
head. 
The expression "white elephant'' is associated in America 
with some encumbrance you cannot use and find difficulty to 
get rid of, but in Anna and the King of Siam we learn that 
white Elephants are welcomed and reverenced as creatures re- 
lated to the Siamese gods. They are ordinary Elephants that 
lack their full complement of dark pigment. 
The Asiatic Elephant is found on the mainland of Asia in 
India, Burma, Siam, Indo-China, and down the Malay Penin- 
sula. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to split off geo- 
graphical races. 
