IS^ MANUAL or THE NILAGIBl Dl.STRlCT. 



CHAP. VIII, flesh is mucli relished by various castes of natives, aud is said to 

 PART I. be very palatable. 



ZooMMJY. The Porcupine. — The porcupine is very common at various 



7 elevations on the Nilagiris, and most destructive to garden 



pine. crops. It is especially fond of potatoes, and various engines of 



destruction, including spring-guns and steel-traps, are employed 

 to get rid of the enemy. A deep narrow ditch with perpendi- 

 cular sides is sometimes dug around the potato fields to keep 

 the porcupines off, as they cannot cross this, and when they fall 

 into the ditch they are enable to get out and are caught. They 

 burrow like rabbits, and are nocturnal in their habits. When 

 found abroad and pursued they are easily run down, but very 

 dangerous either to men or dogs not acquainted with their 

 system of defence, as when hotly pressed they suddenly charge 

 backwai'ds with spines erect, when ten to one the unwary 

 pursuer is taken by surprise and gets impaled on the spines. 

 Their coat of armour enables them to set at defiance blows with 

 a stick and even a charge of shot from a gun, unless it takes effect 

 in the head, 



—The Elephmd. — The eUpJiant is only found low down on the 



^^ ^° slopes of the hills, and owing to the clearing away of jungle for 



coffee planting and the indiscrinnnate destruction by shooting 

 which was carried on for some years, is not so common as it 

 formerly was. The Indian elephant differs both from the 

 African and that of Ceylon. The chief points of difference 

 between the three species will be found in the shape of the head, 

 the size of the ears, the disposition of the streaks of enamel in 

 the teeth, and the number of the ribs. In all tliree species the 

 number of pairs of true ribs is six, but in Elephas Indicus the 

 pairs of false ribs number thirteen, while in the E. Sumatraniis 

 of Ceylon they number fourteen and in E. Africauus fifteen. 

 "Very exaggerated ideas have been entertained as to the height 

 of the elephant. Of 201 elephants which were some years ago in 

 the possession of theMadras Commissariat, the height of the tallest 

 was exactly nine feet eight inches, and that of the majority below 

 eight feet. The fossil remains of an elephant foimd at Jabbalpur 

 are said to have shown a height of fifteen feet, but it is doubt- 

 ful if, at the present day, any Indian elephant ever much 

 exceeds ten feet in height. The Commissariat elephant which 

 measm-ed nine feet eight inches was a male captured in Coimbatore, 

 and 36 years of age. Of late years certain restrictions have, very 

 properly, been instituted by Government for the protection of wild 

 elephants, and considerable numbers been captured in keddahs 

 in Coimbatore and Mysore. As a rule, the wild elephant is a 

 very timid animal, and Rorpie or destructive individuals compara- 

 tively rare. For a more cxtcuded account of this noble animal 



