ClIAP. II. J 



ILVBITS WHEN WILD. 



303 



quoted, that " the shes are ahke tender of any 

 one's young ones as of then: own." ^ Theh^ affection 

 in this particidar is undoubted, but I question whether 

 it exceeds that of other animals ; and even the trait 

 thus adduced of tlieir indiscriminate kindness to all 

 the young of the herd, — a fact to which I have myself 

 been an eye-witness, — so far from being an evidence 

 of the strength of parental attachment individually, is, 

 perhaps, somewhat inconsistent with the existence of 

 such a passion to any extraordinaiy degree.'-^ Li fact, 

 some individuals, who have had extensive facilities for 

 observation, doubt whether the fondness of the female 

 elephants for their offspring is so great as that of many 

 other animals ; as instances are not wanting in Ceylon, 

 in which, when pursued by the hunters, the herd has 

 abandoned the young ones in theu" flight, notwithstand- 

 ing the cries of the latter for help. 



In an interesting paper on the habits of the Indian 



^ A con-espondent of Buffon, M. 

 Marcellus Bles, Seigneiu- de Moer- 

 gestal, who resided eleven years in 

 Ceylon in the time of the Dutch, 

 says in one of his conmiunications, 

 that in herds of forty or fifty, en- 

 closed in a single corral, there were 

 frequently very young calves; and 

 that " on ne pouvoit pas reconnaitre 

 qu'elles ^toient les mores de chacun 

 de ces petites elephans, car tous ces 

 jeimes animaux paroissent faire 

 manse commune ; ils tetent indis- 

 tinctement celles des femelles de 

 toute la troupe que ont du lait, soit 

 qu'elles aient elles-memes im petit en 

 propre, soit qu'elles u'en aient point." 

 — BuFFON, Supj)!. a rilid. des Anim., 

 vol. vi. p. 2o. 



* WniTE, in his Xatural Ilistonj of 

 Sclhornc, philosophising on the fact 

 which had fallen under his own 

 notice of this indiscriminate suckling 

 of the young of one aninuil by the 

 parent of another, is disposed to 

 ascribe it to a selfish feeling; the 

 pleasure and relief of having its dis- 

 tended teats dra^^^l bv this interven- 



tion. He notices the circumstance 

 of a leveret having been thus nm-sed 

 by a cat, whose kittens had been re- 

 cently dro"svnied ; and observers, that 

 '' this strange affection probably was 

 occasioned by that desiderium, those 

 tender maternal feeUngs, which the 

 loss of her kittens had awakened in 

 her breast ; and by the complacency 

 and ease she derived to herself from 

 prociu'ing lier teats to be drawn, 

 which were too much distended with 

 milk ; till from habit she became as 

 mufli delighted with this foundling 

 as if it had been her real offspring. 

 This incident is no bad solution of 

 that strange circumstance Avhich 

 grave historians, as well as the })oets, 

 assert of exposed children being 

 sometimes nurtured by female wWii 

 beasts that probably had lost their 

 young. For it is not one whit more 

 marvellous that Romulus and Ixemus 

 in their infant state should be nursed 

 by a she wolf than that a poor little 

 suckling leveret should be fostered 

 and cherished by a bloody Grimalkin." 

 — White's Sefhome, lett. xx. 



