Game Animals of India, etc. 



absence of large tusks as a distinctive characteristic of 

 Temmi nek's Elephas sumatranus. 



The distinctness of the Ceylon elephant has been 

 taken up by Mr. Alfred Clark, of the Ceylon Forest 

 Department, in a Httle work called Sport in the Low- 

 Country of Ceylon^ published in 1901 at Colombo. 

 The more important of these observations are as 

 follows : — 



" As is well known, the majority of male elephants 

 in Ceylon have no tusks, but only small tushes set 

 vertically in the. upper jaw. Females also have tushes, 

 but they are very small. Tuskers are sometimes met 

 with, but are extremely scarce. It is probable that 

 there are not now more than fifty of all ages in the 

 whole island. That they were numerous in former 

 days is shown by the fact that, when Kandy was 

 conquered in 18 15, among the loot were 289 tusks, 

 weighing 5915J lbs. Tuskers are usually not so big 

 as the tuskless bulls, but are broader across the forehead 

 and have bigger frontal bumps, while the hollow 

 between the ear and eye is not so marked. . . . 

 Very fine tusks, quite as big as the average size of Indian 

 ones, have been got from tuskers shot in Ceylon. 



" One reason which has been given for the rarity of 

 tuskers in Ceylon is the ' scarcity of phosphates in the 

 soil,' which sounds learned, but is nonsense. Such a 

 theory would account for the absence of tusks, or for 

 their universal imperfect development, but not for the 

 fact that some elephants have perfectly developed tusks 

 and others none at all, but tushes instead. There can 

 be little doubt that tuskers and tuskless elephants are two 

 distinct varieties^ the latter being the one indigenous 

 to the island. The tuskers found in our forests are 

 probably the descendants of imported Indian elephants 

 which ran wild. It is reasonable to suppose that if 

 there are two breeds of elephants in Ceylon, cross- 

 breeding would, in the course of time, produce a species 

 of hybrid animal. Native elephant-catchers and traders 



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