426 UNGULATA 



height at the shoulder, a circumstance which enables the hunters to 

 judge from the footprints the exact size of the animals of which 

 they are in pursuit. The African Elephant also differs from its 

 Indian congener in having tusks in both sexes, whereas in the latter 

 the male only is so armed. Moreover, the eye is relatively larger, 

 the forehead more convex, and the colour somewhat darker. 

 Whereas the Indian Elephant frequents the depths of forests and 

 seldom leaves their shade during the daytime, the following 

 account by Sir Samuel Baker indicates different habits in the 

 African species. This traveller observes : " In Africa, the country 



FIG. 183. African Elephant (Elephas africanus). From a young specimen in the 

 London Zoological Gardens. 



being generally more open than in Ceylon, the Elephant remains 

 throughout the day either beneath a solitary tree or exposed to 

 the sun in the vast prairies, where the thick grass attains a height 

 of from nine to twelve feet. The general food of the African 

 Elephant consists of the foliage of trees, especially mimosas. Many 

 of the mimosas are flat-headed, about thirty feet high, and the 

 richer portion of the foliage confined to the crown. Thus the 

 Elephant, not being able to reach to so great a height, must over- 

 turn the tree to obtain the coveted food. The destruction caused 

 by a herd of Elephants in a mimosa forest is extraordinary, and I 

 have seen trees uprooted of so large a size that I am convinced no 

 single elephant could have overturned them. I have measured 

 trees four feet six inches in circumference and about thirty feet 

 high uprooted by elephants. The natives have assured me that 



