Dislike of Dogs. \ 5 



Major Skinner, formerly commissioner of roads in 

 Ceylon, whose official duties in constructing highways 

 involved the necessity of his being in the jungle for 

 months together, always found that, by night or by day, 

 the barking of a dog which accompanied him was suffi- 

 cient to put a herd of wild elephants to flight. On, the 

 whole, therefore, I am of opinion that in a state of 

 nature the elephant lives on terms of amity with every 

 animal in the forest, that it neither regards them as 

 its foes, nor jjrovokes their hostility by its acts ; and 

 that, with the exception of man, its greatest enemy 

 is a fly ! 



These current statements as to the supposed animosity 

 of the elephant to minor animals originated with ^lian 

 and Pliny, who had probably an opportunity of seeing, 

 what may at any time be observed, that when a captive 

 elephant is picketed beside a post, the domestic animals, 

 goats, sheep, and cattle, will annoy and irritate it by 

 their audacity in making free with its provender ; but 

 this is an evidence in itself of the little instinctive dread 

 which such comparatively puny creatures entertain of 

 one so powerful and yet so gentle. 



Amongst elephants themselves, jealousy and other 

 causes of irritation frequently occasion contentions be- 

 tween individuals of the same herd ; but on such occa- 

 sions their general habit is to strike with their trunks, 

 and to bear down their opponents with their heads. It 

 is doubtless correct that an elephant, when prostrated by 

 the force and fury of an antagonist of its own species, is 

 often wounded by the downward pressure of the tusks, 



