THE TOWER MENAGERIE 



archipelago. The African elephant has a retreating 

 forehead which contrasts with the wise and bulbous 

 forehead of the Indian beast furrowed in the middle. 

 The trunk has two finger-like tips at the end. The 

 ears are enormous and flap back over the shoulders. 



The Indian elephant is really, relatively speaking, 

 of course, a small-eared elephant. Within its extremely 

 thick skull lies concealed a brain, which is reputed 

 in the elephant tribe to be particularly effective as a 

 brain. As a matter of fact elephant stories have 

 suffered both from exaggeration and inaccuracy. It 

 is always tempting to read into the actions of an animal 

 purely human motives. Revenge seems to be as sweet 

 to elephants as to women, and tales are told of the 

 nursing of wrath through long periods. Judged by 

 the numerous specimens at the Zoo, the intelligence of 

 the elephant does not appear to be much superior to 

 that of many other beasts. Ungulates generally are not 

 remarkable for brain power, and all that is done by an 

 elephant in obedience to the mahout is also done by 

 trained horses at a circus. As to longevity, that too 

 has been exaggerated vastly. Probably after all 

 Aristotle was not far out when he assigned 200 years 

 as the utmost limit. Long before the Zoo existed, in 

 fact so far back as 1257, an elephant was exhibited in 

 the Tower Menagerie, a royal foundation which as will 

 be seen antedated the Zoo by some centuries. The 

 Zoological Society possess in their house in Hanover 

 Square a quaint cut of an elephant exhibited in the 

 sixteen hundreds. The elephants at the Zoo are, as is 

 well known, used for riding purposes. Their gait under 

 those circumstances is not fast, neither can the elephant 

 ever go at a really fast pace. It has shuffling move- 

 ment which is incompatible with swiftness. 



