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NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK—BAKER. 
THE PACHYDERMS. 
The park is fortunate in having a number of the large, thick- 
skinned animals known to naturalists as pachyderms. ‘There are at 
present three elephants, two hippopotami, four tapirs, and a number 
of swine of different specics in the collection. 
The elephant is the largest animal that lives upon land. He 
grows to 10 feet or more in height and may weigh many thousand 
pounds. The one in the park is 9 feet 1 inch high at the highest 
point of his back and weighs about 11,000 pounds. 
Elephants have huge feet and thick, dark gray skin that hangs in 
loose folds and is covered with short, scanty hair. Their large and 
massive heads have great flapping ears and small eyes. Their most 
remarkable feature is a long proboscis, or trunk, formed by the union 
and excessive growth of the upper lip and the nose. Through it the 
elephant breathes and smells; with it puts food and drink into his 
mouth, throws dirt or hay on his back to protect it from flies, pulls 
down trees, lifts heavy burdens, or safely picks up the most delicate 
and fragile things. It is most sensitive to touch and serves the pur- 
pose of a hand. With it the beast can untie knots, open doors, or 
give himself a shower bath. 
There are at least two groups, the elephants of Africa and those 
of Asia, and varieties are often known by the name of the country 
they inhabit, as the Indian elephant of India and the Ceylon elephant 
of Ceylon. ‘The latter variety is often without tusks, and it therefore 
appears probable that the one at the park is from Ceylon. 
They are hunted for their hides and their tusks of ivory, and, par- 
ticularly in Asia, are sometimes caught and trained for use. While 
usually gentle, they are not easily trained, being really stupid, al- 
though seemingly intelligent. It is a curious fact that, although so 
large and powerful, the elephant is timid and easily frightened, being 
quite afraid of a mouse or of a small dog. 
The Asiatic elephant of the park has a house to himself, where, be- 
hind the heavy bars that shut him from the public, he is free to move 
about, to go out into his large inclosure, and to take a bath in his 
big tank, as shown in plate 11. He is fed on the best of hay, of 
which he eats 125 pounds each day, and he stretches his trunk out to 
visitors for other food; but, because he was once made dangerously 
ill by eating several bushels of peanuts thrown to him on a crowded 
day, visitors are no longer allowed to feed him. 
The African elephant (pl. 12) is represented by two young speci- 
mens, male and female, about 54 and 4 years old, which were received 
from the Giza Zoological Garden. They were captured in Abyssinia, 
near the Blue Nile. They were named Jumbo, jr., and Jumbina, in 
memory of their great predecessor Jumbo, who was probably the 
