Absence of Tusks in Ceylon. 7 



disproportion in the size of those of the females ; in 

 Ceylon, not one elephant in a hundred is found with 

 tusks, and the few that possess them are exclusively 

 males. Nearly all, however, have those stunted pro- 

 cesses called tushes, about ten or twelve inches in length 

 and one or two in diameter. These I have observed 

 them to use in loosening earth, stripping off bark, and 

 snapping asunder small branches and climbing plants ; 

 and hence tushes are seldom seen without a groove worn 

 into them near their extremities.' 



Amongst other surmises more ingenious than sound, 

 the general absence of tusks in the elephant of Ceylon 

 has been associated with the profusion of rivers and 

 streams in the island ; whilst it has been thrown out as 

 a possibility that in Africa, where water is comparatively 

 scarce, the animal is equipped with these implements in 

 order to assist it in digging wells in the sand and in 

 raising the juicy roots of the mimosas and succulent 

 plants for the sake of their moisture. In support of this 

 hypothesis, it has been observed, that whilst the tusks of 

 the Ceylon species, which are never required for such 

 uses, are slender, graceful and curved, seldom exceeding 

 fifty or sixty pounds' weight, those of the African ele- 



' The old fallacy is still renewed p. no), says, " the tusks are shed about 



that the elephant sheds his tusks. the twelfth or thirteenth year." This 



^LiAN says he drops them once in ten is erroneous : after losing the first pair, 



years {lib. xiv. c. s) ; andPLiNV repeats or, as they are called, the "milk tusks," 



the story, adding that, when dropped, which drop in consequence of the ab- 



the elephants hide them under ground sorption of their roots, when the animal 



(lib. viii.), whence Sh.\w says, in his is extremely young, the second pair 



Zoology, "they are frequently found in acquire their full size, and become the 



the woods," and exported from Africa "permanent tusks," which are never 



(vol. i. p. 213) ; and Sir W. Jardine shed. 

 in the Naturalist's Library (vol. ix. 



