4-6 The Wild ElcpJiant. 



been seen composed exclusively of females ; possibly iri 

 consequence of the males having been shot. A herd 

 usually consists of from ten to twenty individuals, though 

 occasionally they exceed the latter number ; and in 

 their frequent migrations and nightly resort to tanks 

 and water-courses, alliances are formed between mem- 

 l:)ers of associated herds, which serve to introduce new 

 blood into the family. 



In illustration of the attachment of the elephant to 

 its young, the authority of Knox has been quoted, that 

 " the shees are alike tender of anyone's young ones as 

 of their own." ^ Their affection in this particular is 

 undoubted, but I question whether it exceeds that of 

 other animals ; and the trait thus adduced of their 

 indiscriminate kindness to all the young of the herd, 

 — of which I have myself been an eye-witness, — so far 

 from being an evidence of the intensity of parental 

 attachment individually, is, perhaps, somewhat incon- 

 sistent with the existence of such a passion to any 

 extraordinary degree.^ In fact, some individuals, who 



^ A correspondent of Buffon, M: point." (Buffon, Suppl. a FHist. 

 Marcellus Bles, Seigneur de Moer- des Anhn. vol. vi. p. 25.) 

 gestal, who resided eleven years in ° White, in \\\% Natural History of 

 Ceylon in the time of the Dutch, says Selbourne, philcsophising on the fact 

 in one of his communications, that in which had fallen under his own notice 

 herds of forty or fifty, enclosed in a of this indiscriminate suckling of the 

 single corral, there were frequently young of one animal by the parent of 

 very young calves; and that "on ne another, is disposed to ascribe it to a 

 pouvoit pas reconnoitre quelles etoient selfi.sh feeling ; the pleasure and relief 

 les meres de chacun de ces petits ele- of having its distended teats drawn by 

 phans, car tous ces jeunes animaux this intervention. He notices the cir- 

 paroissent faire manse commune ; ils cumstance of a leveret having been thus 

 tetent indi.stinctement celles des fe- nursed by a cat, whose kittens had 

 melles de toute la troupe qui ont du been recently drowned ; and observes 

 lait, soil qu'elles aient elles-mcmes un that " this strange affection was pro- 

 petit en proprc, soit qu'elles n'en ajent bably occasioned by that desiderium, 



