The Indian or Asiatic Elephant 



the more timid females are afraid to venture. " Mast " 

 elephants are males in a condition of — probably sexual 

 — excitement, when an abundant discharge of dark oily 

 matter exudes from two pores in the forehead. In 

 addition to various sounds produced at other times, an 

 elephant when about to charge gives vent to a shrill 

 loud " trumpet " ; and on such occasions rushes on its 

 adversary with its trunk rolled up out of danger, 

 endeavouring either to pin him to the ground with its 

 tusks (if a male tusker) or to trample him to death 

 beneath its ponderous knees or feet. 



Exact information in regard to the period of gesta- 

 tion of the female elephant is still a desideratum ; this 

 being largely due to the fact that in India elephants 

 rarely breed in captivity, although they do so much 

 more commonly in Burma and Siam. From observa- 

 tions on elephants in a menagerie in Philadelphia, Mr. 

 H. C. Chapman estimated the duration of pregnancy at 

 as much as twenty-two months ; but other observers 

 have put it at nineteen, while by some it has been 

 reduced to eighteen months. Possibly the native 

 explanation, that the period is twenty-two months in 

 the case of bull calves, and eighteen in that of females, 

 may prove to be correct. The newly-born calf almost 

 immediately stands on its feet, and soon after sucks, 

 effecting the latter operation by raising its trunk and 

 applying its mouth to the maternal teats, which are two 

 in number and situated between the fore-legs. Very 

 rarely two calves are produced at a birth. 



Here it may be mentioned that an elephant drinks 

 by sucking up water with its trunk and then pouring 

 it into its mouth ; all food being likewise conveyed to 

 the mouth by the same organ. 



Elephant-shooting, which is practised on foot, is 

 perhaps the most dangerous of all Indian field-sports ; 

 and a charging elephant needs all the nerve and cool- 

 ness of the sportsman. Describing the charge of an 

 elephant, Mr. Sanderson observes that " the cocked 



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