228 ELEPHANTIDiE. 



Ord. ungulata, l. 



Feet with hoofs instead of claws. 



The feet being vised only as supports, they have no clavicles, and their 

 fore-arms are constantly in a state of pronation ; whence they are reduced 

 to live on vegetables. Their forms and mode of life show much less 

 variety than imguicvilated animals. They were divided into two large 

 groups or orders by Cuvier, the non-ruminating, or Pachydermata, and 

 the Ruminantia. More recently they have been divided into several 

 tribes or sub-orders, viz., Prohoscldea, Ferissodactt/la, and Artlodactyla, 

 the two former, together with one family of the latter, constitviting the 

 Pachydermatous division ; and the remainder of the Artiodactyla com- 

 prising the ruminating animals. Linnaeus divided them into Bruta, 

 Bellua, and Pecora ; the former compi'ising the Elephant and Rhinoceros ; 

 the Bellua, the Horse, the Hog, and the Ilvpi^opotamus ; and the last 

 the ruminants. 



Tribe Proboscidea, Cuvier. 

 This comprises only one family. 



Fam. Elephantid^. 



Two large incisive tusks in the upper jaw; none in the lower jaw; 

 molars large, with the crown elongated ; feet with 5 toes, with nails 

 surrounded by a thick callous skin ; snout elongated into a long pre- 

 hensile proboscis or trvmk ; mammpe two, pectoral. 



The cranium of the elephants is much elevated vertically, the inter- 

 maxillary bones being much developed to support the tusks, which are 

 sometimes enormous, and curved upwards, and to give origin to some of 

 the numerous muscles which support the proboscis. This organ, which is 

 flexible in every direction, and endowed with great sensibility, enables 

 the elephant to procure his food from the ground or high trees ; it also 

 serves to suck up the water he drinks, and convey it to his throat. The 

 brain occupies but a small space in the huge cranium, which has 

 numerous sinuses or air-cavities extending through the frontal, parietal, 

 and temporal bones, even to the occipitals. The nasal bones are so 

 shortened, being pushed up by intermaxillaries, that the nostrils (in the 

 skeleton) are situated in the upper portion of the face, but in the living 

 animal terminate in the end of the proboscis. In a fossil genus when 



