302 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



whom accident or attacliment may have induced to 

 associate together ; and similarity of features and caste 

 attest that among the various individuals which com- 

 pose it, there is a common hneage and relationship. In 

 a herd of twenty-one elephants, captured in 1844, the 

 trunks of each individual presented the same pecidiar 

 formation, — long, and ahnost of one uniform breadth 

 throughout, instead of tapering gradually fi'om the root 

 to the nostril. In another instance, the eyes of tliirty- 

 five taken in one kraal were of the same colour in each. 

 The same slope of the back, the same form of the fore- 

 head, is to be detected in the majority of the same 

 group. 



In the forest several herds will browse in close con- 

 tiguity, and in their expeditions in search of water they 

 may form a body of possibly one or two hundred ; but 

 on the shglitest disturbance each distinct herd hastens to 

 re-form within its own particular ckcle, and to take mea- 

 siu-es on its own behalf for retreat or defence. 



The natives of any place which may chance to 

 be frequented by elephants, observe tliat the num- 

 bers of the same herd fluctuate very slightly ; and 

 hunters in pursuit of them, who may chance to have 

 shot one or more, always reckon with certainty the 

 precise number of those remaining, although a con- 

 siderable interval may intervene before they again 

 encounter them. The proportion of males is gene- 

 rally small, and some herds have been seen com- 

 posed exclusively of females ; possibly in consequence 

 of the males having been shot. A herd usually consists 

 of from ten to twenty individuals, tliough occasionally 

 they exceed the latter number ; and in tlieu^ frequent 

 migrations and nightly resort to tanks and water- 

 coiu'ses, aUiances are formed between members of asso- 

 ciated herds, which serve to introduce new blood into the 

 family. 



In illustration of the attachment of the elephant 

 to its young, the authority of Knox has been 



