48 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE ASIATIC WILD ELEPHANT (ELEPHAS 1XDICUS), 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE ASIATIC ELEPHANT — HABITS OF WILD ELEPHANTS — NUMERICAL EX- 

 TENT OF HERDS — A FEMALE ALWAYS THE LEADER OF A HERD — THE ELEPHANT- FLY 



ELEPHANT CALVES — ELEPHANTS SWIMMING — ROGUE ELEPHANTS — THE MANDLA ELE- 

 PHANT — NIGHT SCENE AT THE HONGANOOR LAKE — DEPREDATIONS OF ELEPHANTS LESS 

 SERIOUS THAN USUALLY SUPPOSED — HEIGHT OF ELEPHANTS — MEASUREMENT OF FOOT — 

 AFRICAN ELEPHANTS — AGE ATTAINED BY ELEPHANTS — WHERE DO ELEPHANTS DIE ? — 

 NATIVE BELIEFS — MURRAIN AMONGST ELEPHANTS — PERIOD OF GESTATION — "MUST'"' 

 ELEPHANTS — FEMALE " MUST " ELEPHANTS — MEANS OF TELLING AGE OF ELEPHANTS — 

 AGE AT WHICH FEMALES BREED — TWO CALVES AT A BIRTH — HEIGHT AND WEIGHT OF 

 CALVES AT BIRTH — THE FEMALE ELEPHANT'S AFFECTION FOR HER YOUNG — SIZE OF 

 INDIAN ELEPHANTS' TUSKS — CONSIDERATION OF THE USES OF THEIR TUSKS TO ELE- 

 PHANTS — ABSENCE OF TUSKS IN CEYLON ELEPHANTS — MUCKNAS — GUNiCSHES — FEMALE 

 ELEPHANTS' TUSHES — PACES AND SPEED OF ELEI'HANTS — INABILITY TO LEAP. 



MY observations of the habits of wild elephants have been made chiefly 

 at Morlay, near the Billiga-rnngun hills, where I commenced elephant- 

 catching in Mysore, and also in the Goondulpet and K.ikankote forests, 

 where I had shot elephants previously, as well as in the Garrow and Chit- 

 tagong hills in Bengal. 



The wild elephant abounds in most of the large forests of India, from the 

 foot of the Himalayas to the extreme south, and throughout the peninsula 

 to the east of the Bay of Bengal — viz., Chittagong, Burmah, and Siam ; it is 

 also numerous in Ceylon. There is only one species of elephant throughout 

 these tracts. 



In Mysore large numbers frequent the forests of the Western Ghats 

 which bound Mysore on the west and south, the Billiga-rungun hills in the 

 south-east, and a few are found in portions of the Nugger Division in the 

 extreme north. There being no heavy forests in the interior, elephants do 

 not, as a rule, occur far within the borders of the province, but are com- 



