192 



jia:\imals. 



animals found in Ceylon and Sumatra, and perhaps in the trans- Gange tic countries ; and 2, the 

 continental, limited to those in continental India. 



It is the eminent Dutch naturalist, Professor Schlegel, who has first attempted to show 

 that there are two species. He brought the idea forward in a paper read before the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences in Holland, in 1861,* in which he tells us that in August 1845 he had 

 obtained several examples of the Sumatran Elephant for the Royal Museum at Leyden from the dis- 

 trict of Palanbang, in Sumatra. " As I was unpacking them, it appeared to me that they differed 

 in several respects from the Elephant of Bengal. I occupied myself therefore with drawing up the 

 characters of these two animals, compared with those of the African Elephant, and gave the results 

 to Herr Temminck, which he afterwards published in the ' Coup d'oeU sur les possessions Neder- 

 landaises dans les Indes Orientales,' calling the new species by the name of Elephas Sumatranus." 



The character of most importance on which Professor Schlegel rests his distinction of species, 

 is the number of the dorsal vertebrae. The Elephas Africakus, according to him, has twenty-one; 

 the E. Suaiatranus, twenty ; and the E. Indicus, or Bengal Elephant, only nineteen. He thinks 

 that he can point out other differences — more particularly differences in the teeth of the two latter, 

 but they are very slight ; and if the difference in the numbers of dorsal vertebrae could be explained 

 away, the grounds for separating the Sumatran from the Indian Elephants would disappear, 

 for a specific difference could hardly be maintained on the strength of such distinctions as that 

 the Ceylonese Elejahant has higher fore quarters, and a smaller and lighter head, which is carried 

 more elevated, and a larger terminal fringe to the tail, while the Elephant of the Sal forests has 

 sometimes five nails on his hinder feet ; characters the most of which were pointed out by Mr. Hodgson 

 many j^ears ago,f and which differ in different individuals from either locality. 



Dr. Falconer, however, in his paper J to which I have so often had occasion to refer, passes 

 the conclusion arrived at by Professor Schlegel under careful examination, and arrives at the con- 

 clusion that there are not two species. I need not foUow him in his exposition of the fallacy or 

 irrelevancy of the minor evidences adduced by Schlegel, Temminck, and others who have taken 

 up their views. It will be sufficient to say in regard to the number of the dorsal vertebrje, 

 that lie shows that instead of their number in the African species being twenty-one, they vary 

 from twenty to twenty-one ; and instead of being in the Indian species nineteen, they vary from 

 nineteen to twenty, and probably it will be found that the Cejdonese animal varies in like manner, 

 but materials for determining this point are still wanting. It follows that the number of dorsal 

 vertebrae is no sure indication of the species. Specimens of all three supposed species can be 

 shown with twenty vertebrae, and as the other characters are insufficient, there seem no adequate 

 grounds to warrant the separation of the species into two. 



The settlement of this question by Dr. Falconer helps to extinguish a doubtful speculation as 

 to Ceylon and Sumatra having been formerly continuous, which was brought forward by Sir Emerson 

 Tennent, and adopted by Professor Schlegel. Referring to the supposed identity of the two Ele- 

 phants, and the differences between the fauna of Ceylon and Southern India, such as the Monkeys 

 being all, or mostly all, different, he suggests the possibility of the former continuity of the islands A 



* Bijdrago tot dc Gescliiedenis van Elephanten-voor- t Hodgson in " Zoological Soc. Proceedings," 1S34, 



namelijk Elkphas Sumatrands, " Verslagen eii Mededeelin- p. 96. 



gen der kouiuklijke Academie van Wetenschappen Afd. J "Nat. Hist. Rev." Jan. 1SG2, p. 81. 



Natuurkunde," 1861, p. 101, translated by Dr. P. L. Solater 

 in " Natural History Rev." ii. p. 72. 



