14 Wild Beasts 



the contrary. Doctor Livingstone (" Travels and Re- 

 searches in South Africa") reports the case of a calf 

 elephant whom its mother abandoned when attacked, and 

 Sir W. Cornwallis Harris ("Wild Sports in Southern 

 Africa") says that a young animal of this kind if accident- 

 ally separated from its mother forgets her instantly, and 

 seeks to attach itself to the nearest female it can find. 

 Sanderson observes in this connection that "while the 

 female evinces no particular affection for her progeny, 

 still, all the attention a calf can get is from its own 

 mother." 



G. Macloskie ("Riverside Natural History") states that 

 " elephants are well disposed towards each other in aggre- 

 gation." Evidently such must be the case, or they could 

 not live together. Their gregarious habits imply an aver- 

 age friendliness. 



While, however, their ordinary temper may, or rather 

 must, be as stated, leadership in herds, when this is 

 not held by a tuskless male or " some sagacious old 

 female," whose abilities their companions are intelligent 

 enough to understand, is settled by combat, and main- 

 tained in the same way. Moreover, bull elephants often 

 quarrel and fight desperately in the free state, and it is 

 said by one or two observers (Drummond particularly) 

 that when herds intoxicate themselves, as they do upon 

 every opportunity, with the Um-ga-nn fruit, they exhibit 

 scenes of riot and violence which cannot be matched on 

 earth. Captive tuskers in elephant stables are always at 

 feud with some other animal, and all their inmates quar- 

 rel upon small provocation. Recently-captured elephants 



