NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



opened fire. The mother Elephant hustled its calf 

 along with its trunk, meanwhile shielding it from 

 danger with her body. Eventually she fell mortally 

 wounded. The half-grown Elephant, which was no 

 doubt the calf's elder brother, hearing his mother 

 screaming, dashed back, and putting his trunk be- 

 tween the hind-legs of the calf, pushed the now 

 unwilHng youngster off as fast as he could. The so- 

 called sportsman, unable to appreciate the sublime 

 nature of this act, blazed away as fast as he could. 

 The Elephant, now badly wounded, staggered and 

 rolled on, still intent on saving his little brother. 

 At last, receiving a mortal wound, he fell to rise no 

 more. The calf, thereupon, ran back to its dead 

 mother. 



A resident of Addo related to me an instance 

 which seems to show the Elephant possesses some 

 capacity for fun. Following a bull, cow and calf 

 in the Addo Bush, the spoor led past the nest of an 

 ostrich. The eggs had been taken out of the nest 

 and placed neatly in threes around it. The owner 

 of the ostrich, who accompanied the gentleman, 

 said one egg was missing. Following the spoor for 

 about a mile, a termite hill was encountered, and the 

 missing egg was balanced on top of it. The top of 

 the heap was too round and smooth to balance the 

 eggy so the Elephant flattened it slightly with its foot 

 to receive the egg. Proceeding further, a large iron 

 gate was found to have been lifted off its hinges 

 and was gone. Half-a-mile further along, the spoor 



260 



