THE ELEPHANTS mi 



large size of the head compared to the body. The Kilima-Njaro species is found at 

 elevations of from seven thousand to eleven thousand feet in the dense forests cloth- 

 ing the mountain. They live entirely in the trees, making their lairs and breeding 

 places in holes in the boughs and trunks, and they are stated to make a great noise 

 .at night. A female captured by Mr. H. H. Johnston gave birth to three young. 

 Mr. H. C. V. Hunter states that many of them are captured alive by the natives for 

 the sake of their skins, of which several are sewed together to make cloaks. 



It is somewhat remarkable that at present no extinct animals have been dis- 

 covered which appear allied to the hyraces. 



ELEPHANTS 



SUBORDER Proboscidea 

 Family ELEPHANTIDJE 



From their peculiar bodily conformation, their huge size, which exceeds that 

 of all other terrestrial Mammals, and the high degree of intelligence which they 

 have been supposed to display, elephants have always excited an amount of popular 

 interest far surpassing that accorded to most other animals. And in truth this deep 

 and widespread interest is by no means misplaced, since elephants really are among 

 the most extraordinary and remarkable forms with which the zoologist is ac- 

 quainted. Through long experience we are now thoroughly familiarized with their 

 appearance, but if we were to see one for the first time we should probably regard it 

 as the strangest Mammal that ever existed, and, indeed, we should not be far wrong 

 in doing so. It has already been mentioned that, so far as regards the structure of 

 their feet, elephants are some of the most generalized of all living Mammals, and a 

 similar remark will apply with equal truth to the structure of the rest of their limbs. 

 When, however, we take into consideration the peculiar nature of their dentition, 

 and their marvelously-constructed proboscis, we find them possessing characteristics 

 of the highest specialization, and it is this combination of generalized and specialized 

 features which render elephants so peculiarly interesting to the zoologist. 



At the present day these animals are represented only by the Indian and Afri- 

 can species, but in past epochs there were a number of extinct forms, some of which 

 serve to connect the living ones, to a certain limited extent, with other Ungulates; 

 and since it is only by a thorough comprehension of the characteristics presented by 

 the dentition of these extinct elephants that the structure of the teeth of their living 

 representatives can be understood, it will be necessary in our account of the group 

 to devote almost as much attention to the fossil as to the existing species. It is 

 worthy, however, of note that although some of the extinct elephants do, as already 

 stated, depart less widely from ordinary Ungulates than is the case with the living 

 Indian and African species, yet such approximation to the normal type is only one 

 of degree, and we are at present totally unacquainted with any animals which are 

 absolutely intermediate between elephants and other Ungulates. The origin of the 

 group is, therefore, still totally unknown, although their nearest relations may 

 prove to be certain extinct groups. 



