BULLET AND SHOT 



Had there been a shootable tusker in it, this would 

 have been a grand chance for the General, who 

 had not, when this incident occurred, bagged the 

 two elephants, to shoot which he had permission ; 

 but the herd was a small one, and the only male 

 in it was not fit to shoot and was therefore allowed 

 to pass unscathed. 



It is a curious and unaccountable fact, that, while 

 mucknahs are the exception in India, a tusker 

 is an exceedingly rare animal amongst male 

 elephants in Ceylon. 



Female elephants have no tusks, only short 

 tushes which are generally broken off before the 

 animal arrives at middle age. I cannot understand 

 how Doctor Jerdon's book, The Mammals of India, 

 can contain this astounding statement in his de- 

 scription of the Indian elephant, "tusks large in the 

 male, small in the female." 



The fact is that while the tushes of the female 

 elephant are mere superficial prongs, only a few 

 inches long, and placed nearly vertically, the tusks 

 of the male are deeply embedded usually for about 

 half of their total length in sockets of bone which 

 terminate only just below the eyes. 



Tusks vary greatly in length and thickness ; some- 

 times one is altogether wanting, and usually where 

 both are present, one is shorter and more worn by 

 use than is the other. 



An elephant with an enormous tusk was bagged 

 in 1863 by Sir Victor Brooke and Colonel Douglas 

 Hamilton in the Billiga Rungun hills in Mysore. 

 This animal had but one perfect tusk, the other 



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