ELEPHANT. 



401 



which is the harsh and hollow roar, which is most 

 frequently heard from the confined animal. The 

 first of these is sportive, and, so long as the animal 

 utters it, there is nothing to be feared. The second 

 is complaint, and, if the cause of it be found out and 

 removed, it will give place to the first, and there is 

 still no danger ; but the third is indignation or 

 revenge, or both united, and then it is not safe to 

 come near the animal. 



From the character of their teeth, the only teeth 

 which they use in the preparation of their food, it is 

 needless to say that elephants feed only upon vege- 

 table substances. As is very generally the case with 

 vegetable feeders, they prefer succulent matters, and 

 especially such as are sweet, or have otherwise an 

 agreeable flavour. In their native forests it is pos- 

 sible that they do not meet with much food of this 

 kind, but subsist chiefly upon the coarse grasses in 

 the openings of the forests, and the leaves and young 

 branches of shrubs and trees. They are social and 

 gregarious animals ; and the herds in which they 

 assemble depend, of course, upon the extent and rich- 

 ness of their forest. The old and young ones associate 

 together without the slightest animosity ; and though 

 it is not ascertained that the numbers of the two sexes 

 are equal, or that they live in pairs, yet they are almost 

 invariably led on by the eldest male and the eldest 

 female, which move in advance, and the others 

 appear implicitly to follow their motions. In India 

 elephants are most abundant in the thick woods on 

 the left bank of the Ganges, along the Brahmapootra, 

 and in the forests of Chittagong, farther to the east. 

 The places of Bengal, in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the forests on the Ganges, are exceedingly 

 rich, and well adapted for all the more valuable pro- 

 ducts of the Indian soil ; and, therefore, in them 

 cultivation is carried closer to the forests than in the 

 less fertile parts of the country. The consequence 

 is, that elephants, though perhaps not so numerous 

 there as in Chittagong, are much more frequently 

 seen. The herds also occasionally invade the cul- 

 tivated fields, eating vast quantities of green sugar- 

 canes, rice, bananas, and other crops, and trampling 

 down and destroying the remainder with their great 

 feet. They are also very bold and very formidable 

 in their invasions ; and unless the people can rise 

 en masse, and drive them off with torches and cannon 

 shot, they must just look on, and behold the ruin of 

 their fields, until it shall please the elephants to 

 retire. 



The keeping of an elephant is a very expensive 

 matter, the quantity of food required being from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds' weight every 

 day. This is, however, the quantity estimated for a full- 

 grown elephant in perfect health ; and the small and 

 sickly ones, which are generally in this country, do 

 not require so much food. Chunee, whose death, or 

 perhaps murder, in the menagerie at Exeter Change, 

 some years ago, excited so much of the public atten- 

 tion, was a sturdy fellow in this way ; and though he 

 had been cooped up in menageries, and been made 

 to play on the boards of national theatres, kept his 

 health well, and grew apace till he reached the weight 

 of nearly four tons. No inquest was held upon him, 

 but it was whispered among zoologists that Chunee's 

 fury was not the sole cause of his death. The two 

 supplemental ones which were mentioned were, first, 

 that as the place was to be taken down and the ani- 

 mals removed, the removal of Chunee would have 



NAT. HIST. VOL. IT. 



been a matter of great expense and labour, and not 

 altogether free from clanger.either to himselt'or to those 

 about him ; and, secondly, that Chunee required so 

 much food, and people had become so familiarised to 

 the sight of him, that he had become a losing specu- 

 lation. We know not what truth there may be in 

 these surmises, or whether there may be any truth in 

 them at all, though we mention them as connected 

 with one of the largest and most vigorous elephants 

 that ever was exhibited in this country. True or 

 false, no blame whatever can by possibility attach to 

 the owner. The animal was property lawfully pur- 

 chased ; and we know of no law to prevent a man 

 from killing his own elephant, any more than for 

 killing his own mutton. 



As we hinted in a previous part of this article, the 

 old prejudice that elephants scorn to breed in a state 

 of confinement, is totally without foundation. From 

 the great excitement of the males during the rutting 

 time, it is natural to suppose that when they are in 

 confinement, or poorly fed, or severely worked, their 

 system will not be stimulated to the requisite degree ; 

 and, therefore, the young elephants which are born 

 in confinement are exceedingly few ; and no instance 

 of it has occurred in modern Europe. From some 

 accounts given both by ^Elian and Columella, it should 

 seem that in the time of the Romans, when elephants 

 were kept by them for the purposes of ostentation or 

 of war, there were at least a few of young produced 

 in confinement. But the most decisive evidence that 

 we have of this point is from Mr. Corse Scott, who 

 from his residence at Tipperah, in the eastern part of 

 Bengal, had excellent opportunities of studying the 

 natural history of elephants, and who improved those 

 opportunities to admiration. Mr. Scott had an ele- 

 phant born on his own premises, both parents of which 

 were in his possession for some time previous to the 

 commencement of the gestation. By this means Mr. 

 Scott established, for the first time, we believe, an 

 important fact in the economy of these animals, 

 namely, the exact length of time that the female goes 

 with young. This had been previously mentioned by 

 writers on the natural history of the elephant, but 

 apparently from hearsay ; but Mr. Scott ascertained 

 it to be from the first of July, 1793, to within a day 

 or two of the first of April, 1795, which may be con- 

 sidered as exactly twenty months ; and from all the 

 rest of his observations he had no reason to conclude 

 that the period is ever different from this. Both of 

 Mr. Scott's elephants were above the standard required 

 by the army in India ; but the female was not old, for 

 during the period of her gestation she increased five 

 inches in height. 



The young elephant at its birth stands about three 

 feet high, and it grows nearly a foot more the first 

 year, two-thirds of a foot the second, half a foot the 

 third, five inches the fourth, rather less in the fifth, 

 between three and four inches in the sixth, and two 

 and a half in the seventh. Tnus, there is a yearly 

 diminution in the quantity grown ; and it is probable 

 that ultimately this growth ceases, though there is 

 every reason to believe that the oldest elephants of 

 both sexes are the largest. 



The young begins very early to suck ; and while it 

 performs this operation with the mouth, it at the same 

 time presses the teat with the trunk to aid the flow of 

 the milk. In a state of nature, the female elephant ap- 

 pears to have very little attachment to her young, less 

 so than most animals ; for it is stated that when a female 

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