108 THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. 



continually flapping their huge ears. Others are 

 feeding on the mimosa twigs, or scooping the 

 sun-hardened soil from around some succulent bulb, 

 while, perhaps, one enormous male, the patriarch of 

 the herd, is labouring with his powerful tusks to 

 overturn some tree in order to feed on the tender 

 shoots that are now beyond his reach. Using each 

 of his tusks alternately, he ploughs up the soil, 

 detaching the root-fibres until he has loosened it 

 sufficiently, when, with one tremendous pull of his 

 twisted proboscis, down comes the tree with crash- 

 ing boughs and upturned roots, raising a cloud of 

 earth and dust. The rest of the herd crowd round 

 their industrious leader, and regale themselves on 

 the succulent tendrils. 



I have never heard of an instance of albinism 

 in the African elephant ; a circumstance which, 

 although extremely rare, occurs sometimes among 

 the Asiatic species. The colour in this variety is of 

 a brownish-cream colour, giving an unhealthy and 

 by no means favourable appearance to the animal. 



The molar teeth of the Asiatic and African ele- 

 phant differ from each other in the arrangement of 

 the enamel ; that on the surface of the grinders of 

 the former being moulded into a number of flat- 

 tened ovals, placed transversely ; while in the lat- 

 ter it takes the form of five or six lozenge-shaped 

 folds. The growth of the molar teeth takes place 



