MAMMALIA. 633 



generally exaggerated ; only very rarely have any been seen which exceeded 

 lo feet in height. They live to a great age (lOO years and more); ges- 

 tation lasts 20 or 21 months; the young one sucks with the mouth, not 

 ■with the trunk. It is generally known that elephants are very docile ; the 

 ancients appear to have advanced much further in the education and 

 instruction of these animals than people of the present day ; see Plinius 

 Hist. nat. Lib. viii. cap. 3, ^lianus de Natura animal. Lib. 11. cap. 11. 



Compare on the elephant amongst others P. Camper Description ana- 

 tomique d'un elephant male, publiee par A. G. Camper, CEuvres de P, 

 Camper, 11. pp. i — 282 ; Corse Observations on the manners, habits and 

 nat. Hist, of the Elephant, Phil. Trans, for 1799, p. 31 sqq. ; Cdvier 

 V Elephant dcs hides, Menag. du M-us. 2e et 8e Livraisons ((5d. i2mo, I. pp. 

 83 — 125, II. pp. 45 — 65); Mayer Beitrdge zur Anat. des Elephanten und 

 der ilbrigen Pachydermen. Nov. Act. nat. curios. Tom. xxii. 1847. 



LiNNJEDS adopted only one species of elephants, under the name of 

 Elephas maxinius. — Blumenbach, who was indebted for the observation to 

 Camper {CEuvres de P. Camper, ii. p. 69), was the first who distinguished 

 two species by their molar teeth. 



EUpjhas africanus Blumenbach, Cuv., Geoffr. St.-Hilaire and F. Cuv. 

 Mamm. Livr. 51 (copied in Schreber Sdugtli. Tab. 317 d), Cuv. R. Ani., 

 ed. ill., Mamm. PI. 76, fig. i. ; (a molar figured in Blumenb. Abb. natur- 

 hist. Gegenst. No. 19c); the molars present rhoraboidal bands of enamel on 

 the crown, so that the plates of which they consist are thicker in the 

 middle than on the in- and outside ; the foreliead is convex ; the ears are 

 uncommonly large, semicircular flaps. This species occurs in tropical and 

 South Africa. 



Elefhas asiaticus Blumenb., Elephas indicus Cuv. Menag. du Mas. 11., 

 Geoffr. St.-Hilaire et F. Cuv. 1. 1., Schreb. Sdugth. Tab. 317 c, Guer. 

 Iconogr., Mamm. PI. 37, fig. i, Bict. univ. d'Hist. nat., Mamm. PI. 9 b; 

 a molar figured by Blumenb. 1. 1. fig. b ; the bands of enamel on the worn 

 crowns of the molars are narrow, parallel and sinuous ; the ears are smaller 

 and narrower ; the head longer ; the forehead is somewhat concave. (Both 

 species are figured in the Diet, des So. natur., Mammif. PI. 82, cahier 43, 

 and their skulls in Goethe und D'Alton Zur vergleichenden Osteologie, 

 Nov. Act. Acad. Leap. Carol. Nat. Cur. xii. r, 1824, Tab. 33 — 35.) This 

 Asiatic elephant occurs on the continent of India and in Ceylon ; at 

 Java no elephants are found. At Sumatra, on the contrary, a species of 

 elephant is indigenous, which, according to the remark of Temminck, 

 forms a third species, Elephas sumatranus Temm., of which the dental 

 laminae are thicker and less numerous than in the common Indian species ; 

 it has 20 pairs of ribs, whilst the Indian species has only 19. Coup d'ceil 

 general sur les Possessions Neerl. dans I'Inde, 11. 1847, PP> 9^> 9^- (Since 

 the elephant, as some testify, occurs also in certain parts of Borneo, it 

 may be surmised that it is probably this Sumatran species.) 



There are also remains of elephants belonging to a former animal world 

 (from the diluvial period), amongst which the Elephas primigenius Blu- 

 menb., the Mammoth'^, is best knovsm. In Holland, too, bones and molars 



Properly ilfam;no?i< ; see Bulletin de la Soc. imp. de Moscou, i. 1829, pp. 267 — 271. 



