ELEPHANTS 717 



on its upper margin. The elephants of this type are the 

 smallest in Africa and have also relatively the smallest 

 ears. A member of this race was described in 1906 as a 

 pygmy race, for which the name pumilio was proposed. 

 The specimen on which this race was based was a living 

 specimen at the Hagenbeck Gardens and was at the time 

 only 3>^ feet in height and weighed some 600 pounds, but 

 was assumed to be at least half grown, the age being stated 

 to be six years. It was, however, a small animal in 1906, 

 when described, but has since grown up under the care of 

 the New York Zoological Park and at present has a height 

 of 5 feet 7 inches and a weight of 2,250 pounds. It is 

 annually subject to some incurable skin disease, which has 

 retarded its growth and no doubt accounts for its under- 

 sized condition. The shape of the ears is quite identical with 

 those of typical cyclotis of West Africa, from which region 

 it is said to have come. Whether the Congo elephants have 

 rounded ears, similar to those of cyclotis^ is not at present 

 known, but it appears from photographic evidence that 

 they are somewhat different in shape and are intermediate 

 in size between the small-eared race, cyclotis, and the large- 

 eared, capensis, and have an inward fold on the upper margin 

 of the ears, as in the latter race. We have, accordingly, 

 allowed them to stand as the typical race, africana, of 

 Blumenbach. Since Matschie has pointed out the ear 

 differences in the races here recognized, several other races 

 have been described by other naturalists. We have failed 

 to find, however, substantial proof of their distinctness in 

 the specimens we have examined. Most of such races are 

 based on slight distinctions drawn between individual 

 specimens from various parts of East and South Africa, and 

 represent, to a considerable degree at least, individual varia- 

 tion. Differences in skull shape between the races here 

 recognized have not yet been established, owing to the great 

 individual variation to which the skull is subject. The size 

 of the tusks influences the premaxillary region greatly, the 

 size of the premaxillary bones which sheath the tusks being 

 in direct relation to the size of the tusks, which are well 

 known to have an immense individual variation. Distinc- 

 tions based upon the relationship of the width to the length 

 in such bones is on this account of questionable racial value. 



