MAMMALS. 61o 



morning I found a wound, evidently caused by a beat, on my hip. This 

 was rather unpleasant, so I set to work with the negroes, and tried to 

 exterminate them. I shot a great many as they hung from the rafters ; 

 and the negroes, having mounted with ladders to the roof outside, routed 

 out from beneath the eaves many hundreds of them, including young 

 broods. ... I was never attacked by bats except on this occasion. The 

 fact of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping, from wounds which 

 they make in the toes, is now well established ; but it is only a few persons 

 who are subject to this blood-letting. ... I am inclined to think that 

 many different kinds of bats have this propensity." 



Elephants. 



There is scarcely another animal — man excepted — about which so 

 much interest centres as about the elephants. Their immense size and 

 their great intelligence render them favorites with all. And then they 

 have so many interesting features, — their long legs, which seem to move 

 without a joint ; their small eyes, which seem all out of proportion to the 

 huge body ; the ivory tusks ; and, strangest of all, their trunk, which words 

 can scarcely describe. 



There are two distinct species of elephants, — one living in Asia, and 

 characterized by small ears, a hollow forehead, four nails to the hind feet, 

 and tusks in the male only ; the other is the African elephant, with a con- 

 vex forehead, enormous ears, and only three nails on the toes of the hind 

 feet. In the structure of the teeth as well there are differences to note. 

 In all elephants there are but two kinds of teeth, — molars and incisors. 

 The latter are represented in the upper jaw alone, and these form the tusks, 

 so familiar to all. These grow from permanent pulps, and hence they 

 increase in size as long as the animals live. The molars are complex in 

 structure. They are enormous in size, and each one is made up of plates 

 of enamel, placed perpendicularly to the surface in use, while between and 

 around these plates is the softer dentine. As a result of this the cutting 

 surface of the teeth, by wear, soon become converted into a series of ridges 

 (the enamel) and depressions, and thus the two opposing teeth of either 

 side form a most perfect mill for the comminution even of the branches of 

 the trees. The enamel ridges in the Indian elephant are straight and 

 narrow, while in the African they are fewer and lozenge-shape. 



There is a curious succession of these molars in the elephants. There 

 are twenty-four in all ; but of these only eight — two in each side of each 

 jaw — are in function at once. As the tooth comes down from the jaw. it 

 comes into use, and then slowly moves forward, pushing its predecessor 



