PROBOSCIDIANS 89 



in underground burrows (a protection against the effects of bad weather), 

 and the care of the mother for the young, rabbits multiply so fast that 

 they may even become a pest to the farmer. Thus, within recent years 

 they have spread over some districts in Australia like swarms of locusts, 

 owing to the insufficiency of beasts of prey, which might have checked 

 their astonishing increase in numbers (compare with sparrow). By 

 destroying all the grass, they have actually rendered cattle-rearing 

 impossible, and in this way driven numbers of settlers from their homes. 

 Like a ruin-bringing cloud, they are still spreading over larger and 

 larger districts. By gnawing the bark of trees and undermining the 

 soil, they also do much damage to young plantations in Europe. 



ORDER VIII. : PROBOSCIDIANS (PROBOSCIDIA). 



LARGE animals having their snout prolonged into a trunk, or proboscis. 

 The legs are pillar-shaped, the toes united, forming a pad. The upper 

 incisors have the form of tusks ; no canine teeth ; large molars composed 

 of a number of transverse plates. 



The Indian Elephant (Elephas asiaticus). 

 (Height from 11 to 13 feet.) 



To understand the extremely peculiar structure of the elephant, it is 

 necessary to know the conditions under which the wild animal lives. 



A. Its Home. 



The elephant is found in the immeasurable forests, stretching from 

 the plains high into the mountains, of India, Further India, and the 

 neighbouring islands of Ceylon, Sumatra and Borneo. Here warmth 

 and moisture produce an exuberance of vegetable life. A dense tangle 

 of underwood extends between the lofty trees of the forest. Twining 

 plants of the thickness of a man's arm wind themselves round trees and 

 shrubs, forming an impenetrable jungle. Such mammals as can exist 

 in a jungle of this character must either be arboreal in their mode of 

 life, and able to make their way from branch to branch and tree to tree, 

 or small ground animals, able, on account of their minute size, to creep 

 through the thicket, or, finally, huge giants like the elephants, capable 

 of forcing a passage through the tangled wilderness. 



B. What enables the Elephant to penetrate the Aboriginal Forest. 



1. The powerful body, shaped like a gigantic wedge, which is able to 

 break the thicket asunder. This body, moreover, is rigid and laterally 



