THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED ANIMALS 189 



They are vegetable feeders^ living in the mountainous 

 forests of India and in Central and South Africa. 



The legs of the elephant are like pillars^ the femur 

 and humerus not being bent respectively on the lower 

 leg and forearm. In this absence of angulation at the 

 joints the elephant is unique. When it kneels the 

 forearm and lower part of the leg are bent in 

 the same direction. These powerful pillar-like legs 

 enable the elephant to support its massive body, 

 which often weighs several tons, and to carry 

 on its back burdens amounting to three tons in 

 weight. 



The skin is hard and very tough and almost bare 

 of hair, but there is a tuft of hair on the end of the 

 tail. The skull is enormous compared with the size 

 of the brain. The large air-cavities in the skull add 

 to its strength and enable the animal to use its head 

 as a battering-ram without injury. They possess two 

 tusks, which are the enlarged incisors of the upper 

 jaw. The molars are so large, often measuring 16 

 inches by 4 inches, that there are never more than 

 three, usually only two, above the gum at the same 

 time. At first there is only one grinder on each 

 side in each jaw, then a second grows up behind it ; 

 later the front one drops out, and a third develops 

 behind the second. Each tooth, as it appears, is 

 larger and has more ridges than the earlier ones. 

 The Indian elephant has more ridges in its teeth 

 than the African species ; as many as twenty-seven 

 ridges being developed in the grinders of the former, 

 while in the molars of the' latter there are never 

 more than ten or eleven ridges. 



