10 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



tudinally oval, and when worn show alternating layers of enamel, 

 ivory, and bony cement. They keep gradually working forward in 

 the jaw, the rear teeth coming through from behind as the fore ones 

 are worn away, till at last the remnants of the latter are shed. Thus 

 the Elephant is cutting its teeth all its life, and never has more than 

 one, or one and a half, in use at one time on each side of each jaw ; 

 the total number produced is twenty-four, six for each side of either 

 jaw. This number must last the animal's lifetime at any rate if it 

 wears them all out it must die of indigestion but the danger of this 

 cannot be great, as there seems good reason to suppose the beast 

 lives a hundred years. 



The existing Elephants are among the few land animals which are 

 practically naked, there being hardly any hair on the body, although 

 the end of the long thin tail is tasselled with stout bristles. Young 

 Elephants, however, are more hairy than adults ; at birth they are 

 about the size of an ordinary Pig, with the trunk shorter and the 

 forehead less prominent than in the old animal. Only one is pro- 

 duced at a time, and for some time it is carefully kept by the mother 

 beneath her body, under which it can of course walk quite comfort- 

 ably ; as, otherwise, the adventurous sallies of the little creature, 

 which is as playful as other young animals, would expose it to the 

 risk of capture by the Tiger, which willingly preys on young Elephants 

 if he can get them. The little Elephant sucks with the mouth, not 

 the trunk ; the old one's teats are situated close up to the armpits. 



Elephants become adult at about twenty-five years of age ; the 

 members of a herd keep close together, and often show such similarity 

 in appearance that they are evidently related. Of course it takes an 

 Elephant expert to notice this, but there are individual differences 

 conspicuous to a trained eye, besides others more noticeable. Thus, 

 many Elephants have the trunk and face blotched with flesh-colour, 

 and presumably the extension of this hue all over the body constitutes 

 the rare White Elephant. In some cases there are five instead of 

 only four nails on the hind-foot ; and some males are devoid of 

 tusks, these being known in India as "mucknas." In Ceylon almost 

 all male Elephants are tuskless. The Elephant is a remarkably active 

 animal for its size, although it can neither gallop nor jump, its only 

 pace being a walk, either slow or fast, and it can stride a ditch of 



