to THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. i. 



are not worth extracting from the head. They are 

 useful to the elephants in hooking on to a branch and 

 tearing it down. 



Elephants are gregarious, and the average number 

 in a herd is about eight, although they frequently form 

 bodies of fifty and even eighty in one troop. Each 

 herd consists of a very large proportion of females, 

 and they are constantly met without a single bull in 

 their number. I have seen some small herds formed 

 exclusively of bulls, but this is very rare. The bull is 

 much larger than the female, and is generally more 

 savage. His habits frequently induce him to prefer 

 solitude to a gregarious life. He then becomes 

 doubly vicious. He seldom strays many miles from 

 one locality, which he haunts for many years. He 

 becomes what is termed a ' rogue.' He then waylays 

 the natives, and in fact becomes a scourge to the 

 neighbourhood, attacking the inoffensive without the 

 slightest provocation, carrying destruction into the 

 natives' paddy-fields, and perfectly regardless of night 

 fires or the usual precautions for scaring wild beasts. 



The daring pluck of these ' rogues ' is only equalled 

 by their extreme cunning. Endowed with that won- 

 derful power of scent peculiar to elephants, he travels 

 in the day-time dotvn the wind ; thus nothing can fol- 

 low upon his track without his knowledge. He winds 

 his enemy as the cautious hunter advances noiselessly 

 upon his track, and he stands with ears thrown for- 



