Noises. 29 



is known as "trumpeting" by the hunters in Ceylon. 

 Their cry when in pain, or when subjected to compulsion, 

 is a grant or a deep groan from the throat, with the pro- 

 boscis curled upwards and the lips wide apart. 



Should the attention of an individual in the herd be 

 attracted by any unusual appearance in the forest, the 

 intelligence is rapidly communicated by a low suppressed 

 sound made by the lips, somewhat resembling the twit- 

 tering of a bird, and described by the hunters by the 

 word "/;7//." 



A very remarkable noise has been described to me by 

 more than one individual, who had come unexpectedly 

 upon a herd during the night, when the alarm of the ele- 

 phants was apparently too great to be satisfied with the 

 stealthy note of warning just described. On these occa- 

 sions the sound produced resembled the hollow booming 

 of an empty tun when struck with a v/ooden mallet or a 

 muffled sledge. Major Macready, Military Secretary in 

 Ceylon in 1836, who heard it by night amongst the wild 

 elephants in the great forest of Bintenne, describes it as 

 " a sort of banging noise like that of a cooper hammer- 

 ing a cask ; " and Ma'or Skinner is of opinion that it 

 must be produced by the elephant striking his ribs rapidly 

 and forcibly with his trunk. Mr. Cripps informs me that 

 he has more than once seen an elephant, when surprised 

 or alarmed, produce this sound by beating the ground 

 forcibly with the flat side of the trunk ; and this move- 

 ment was instantly succeeded by raising it again, and 

 pointing it in the direction whence the alarm proceeded, 

 as if to ascertain by the sense of smell the nature of the 



