136 MAMMALIA. PACHYDERMA. 



and in small number ; five toes on all the feet ; nose prolong- 

 ed into a proboscis. 



Gen. 124. ELEPHAS, Lin. Cuv. Geoff. Desm. 



Incisors or tusks , canines g-g, molars f-f , = 10. Tusks 

 slightly arched toward their extremity, composed of ivory, 

 cased in a crust of enamel ; molars composed of vertical and 

 transverse laminae covered by enamel ; five toes on all the 

 feet ; nose elongated into a cylindrical proboscis, moveable 

 in all directions, with a moveable appendix at the termination, 

 serving the purpose of a finger ; head very large ; neck short, 

 eyes small, lateral ; ears extremely flat, and very large ; body 

 large and massive ; tail short, tufted at the end; two mammae. 



The Elephant is the largest of existing quadrupeds, and has been known from the 

 earliest ages. The Asiatic species is found throughout the whole of Southern India 

 and the neighbouring islands ; but though extensively employed it can scarcely be 

 considered as a domestic animal, as it does not breed in captivity. The supply is 

 therefore kept up by the capture of wild ones, and elephant-hunting forms a prin- 

 cely sport among the inhabitants of Asia. The elephant inhabits forests in the 

 neighbourhood of rivers, and swims with great ease. It is a gregarious animal, and 

 is generally found in herds, sometimes to the amount of hundreds together. Its 

 extreme docility renders it easy to be tamed ; and numerous facts have been related of 

 its sagacity in a state of domestication. The specimen long in Mr Cross's collection 

 at Exeter Change, and which he was forced to kill to preserve the building, was be- 

 tween 10 and 11 feet in height, and weighed by computation between four and five 

 tons. Its daily allowance of food was three trusses of hay, about 200 Ibs of carrots 

 and other fresh vegetables, and from 60 to 80 gallons of water. A strong elephant 

 can carry 2000 pounds weight and travel 60 miles a-day ; though in long marches its 

 feet are apt to become tender. The period of gestation is twenty months. At birth 

 the young elephant is about three feet long, and it sucks with its mouth, putting back 

 the proboscis when doing so. It arrives at full growth in about twenty years ; and lives, 

 according to the opinion entertained in India, for three centuries, witnessing the suc- 

 cessive rise and decay of the ephemeral generations of men. The tusks, an object of 

 commerce, are changed but once during the life of the animal, but the molar teeth 

 are renewed as often as detrition renders it necessary. These teeth, however, are not 

 renewed in the usual manner, by the new teeth pushing out the old ones, but by a 

 lateral succession from back to front. The most wonderful part of the structure of 

 the elephant is its proboscis, which to it serves all the purposes of a hand ; and 

 while it is able with this powerful instrument to lift the greatest weights, its lip pos- 

 sesses all the delicacy of a finger, and is capable of seizing the smallest substances. 



~Et. Indicus, Cuv. (E. maximus, Lin.) The Asiatic Elephant. 

 Head oblong ; forehead concave ; ears large, but less than those 

 of the African species ; four hoofs on the hind-feet ; crown of 

 the molar teeth marked by transverse undulating lines of ena- 

 mel. Height about ten feet. Inhabits Southern Asia and the 

 larger Islands. Shaw, i. pi. 63. 



Var. The white Elephant. This variety is rare, and is held in much esteem by the 

 eastern sovereigns. Horace alludes to its exhibition in ancient Rome, Epist. i. B. ii. 



E. Africanusy Cuv. Desm. The African Elephant. Head round, 

 forehead convex ; ears very large ; three hoofs to the hind-feet ; 

 crown of molar teeth marked by lozenge-shaped lines of enamel. 

 Smaller than the Asiatic species. This is probably the elephant 

 of the Greeks and Romans. Griff. An. King. iii. 349. 



E, primogenius, Blumen. The Mammoth, Cuv. (fossil species*.) 



