ELEPHANT, TAPIR, HVRAX, RHINOCEROS 157 







Mithridates, who, I suppi >se, 

 drew his supply from India? 

 I lviiow in the representations 

 of elephants on the medals of 

 Faustina and of Septimus 

 Severus the ears arc African, 

 though the bodies and heads 

 .11 e Indian ; but these w ei e 

 struck nearly 400 years after 

 Carthaginian times, when the 

 win ile known world had been 

 ransacked by the Romans for 

 beasts lor their public shows; 

 and I still think it possible 

 that the Carthaginians — the 

 great traders and colonisers 

 of old — may have obtained 

 elephants through some of 

 their colonies from India. 



An interesting example 

 of the intelligence of these 

 animals can be seen any 

 day at the public Zoological 

 Gardens. A large African ele- 

 phant restores to his would-be 

 entertainers all the biscuits, 

 whole or broken, which strike 

 the bars and fall alike out 

 of his reach and theirs in 

 the space between the barrier 

 and his cage. He points his 

 trunk at the biscuits, and 



blows them hard along the floor t< > the feet of the persons who have thrown them. He clearly knows 

 what he is doing, because, if the biscuits do not travel far enough, he gives them a harder blow. 



TAPIRS AND HVRAX. 



IiV W. I'. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Tapirs are odd-looking creatures, and, strange as it may seem, are nevertheless related on 

 the one hand to the rhinoceroses, and on the other to the horses. They are furthermore 

 extremely interesting animals, because they have undergone less modification of form than any 

 other members of the group to which they belong. This we know because fossil tapirs, belonging 

 to a very remote period of the world's history, are practically indistinguishable from those now living. 



The general form of the body may perhaps be described as pig-like; the head, too, suggests 

 that animal. Rut the pig's snout is here produced into a short proboscis, or trunk. The feet are 

 quite unlike those of the pig, and resemble those of the rhinoceros. The fore feet have each 

 four and the hind feet three toes; these are all encased in large horse-like hoofs. The tail is 

 reduced to a mere stump. 



Tapirs are shy and inoffensive animals, living in the seclusion of dense forests in the neigh- 

 bourhood of water, in which element they are quite at home; indeed, it is said that they will 

 trequently dive and walk along the bed of the river. The)' are also fond of wallowing in mud. 

 1 i 



Phm by L. Midland, F.Z.S.] [Nclli Finthlt) 



MALE AFRICAN ELEPHANT DRINKING 



Not the great size ' the . ks and baic of tbe trunk 



