532 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



The Ceylon race of elephants was at one time found in immense 

 numbers all over the island, even at the tops of the high mountains, 

 wherever food, shade, and water were obtainable. The inroads 

 of man have since then greatly reduced their numbers and limited 

 their range, but they still are found wild in many accessible localities. 

 I. have often found their fresh spoor and seen recently captured 

 specimens during my forest rambles. 



This historic subspecies has been exported especially to India 

 from the earliest times. Aelian, the naturalist historian, writing 

 in the second century A. D., gives an account of their employment 

 in the first Punic War. In more recent times a,ll wild elephants 

 became the property of the Kandyan kings, and their capture 

 without permission of the crown was a grave criminal offense. 



Doubtless the survival of comparatively large herds of Sinhalese 

 elephants is due chiefly to their lack of tusks. While the Indian and 

 African elephant — both male and female — possess this important 

 source of the ivory of commerce, less than 1 per cent of the Ceylon 

 variety — invariably the male elephant — is provided with these use- 

 ful organs. Their place is taken by undeveloped tushes about a foot 

 long which assist the animal to gather his food or to dig in the earth 

 for water, or to uproot succulent plants. The tusks of the Sinhalese 

 elephant are quite unlike those of his African relative, being smaller, 

 more slender, more gracefully curved and furnishing less than one- 

 half the ivory of the latter species. 



With rare exceptions I found the Ceylon elephant to be a most 

 intelligent, harmless, amiable and useful beast, readily tamed and, 

 if properly treated, able and willing to do a certain amount of hard 

 work. 



His habits in the jungle are well known. As he fears no enemy 

 but man and as his food is everywliere easily obtainable, there is no 

 rivalry with other denizens of the jungle and consequently no 

 develoiDment in him of combative qualities. 



In addition to the absence of tuslcs, the ears of the Cejdon variety 

 are smaller than in the Indian and African species, the forehead is 

 higher and more concave, and tlie formation of the teeth is different. 



When in India I had an ancient illustrated Sanskrit manuscript on 

 the elephant translated for me. It corresponds to a similar work in 

 Pali-Sinhalese, called the Hastisilpe, in which the various breeds or 

 castes of this noble animal are carefully described and pictured. 



Apart from the white or albino elephant the natives of Ceylon 

 prefer to the usual, uniformly light-brown animal one whose skin 

 is disfigured by yellowish, pink, or flesh-colored blotches, especially 

 on the trunk, ears, forehead, and legs. These mottled areas do 

 not indicate a particular breed but are very likely deteriorations of 



