56 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



are also many males without tusks at all, and 

 in Ceylon, indeed, tuskers, though not un- 

 common formerly, are nowadays the exception. 

 The appearance of the Indian elephant is 

 familiar to most of us. In colour, the skin is 

 black and nearly hairless, though there are 

 bristles on the tail. The tail itself is not 

 decorative, and sometimes it is much dis- 

 figured. One historic " rogue" elephant, shot 

 some years ago in the Bangalore Ghats, was 

 minus half of its tail, and the natives say that 

 this is done in fighting other elephants. They 

 must therefore bite their antagonist's tail off, 

 though they must surely have some difficulty 

 in getting hold of such a wretched little object. 

 In Burmah there are so-called "white" ele- 

 phants. These are not in reality white at all, 

 but a dirty flesh colour. Still, they have been 

 called white for so many years that tourists in 

 the Far East are bitterly disappointed not to 

 find them as white as Polar bears. I sug- 

 gested above that an ordinary spear should make 

 very little impression on the elephant's hide, 

 but I ought to have remembered the misery 

 these huge creatures endure from biting flies, 

 to escape from which they not only stand for 

 hours up to their eyes in muddy water, with 

 only the tip of the trunk above the surface, but 

 also clamber far up into the hills, being better 

 climbers than one would think possible of such 



