248 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



also a black patch on the inside of the forelegs above the knees. This animal is both a bush and 

 a plain dwelling animal, and occurs in the following places : — Shimba Hills, Athi Plains (scarce 

 outside the reserve), Ithanga Hills (plentiful), north of Nyeri and on the Guas Ngiro; Guas 

 Ngishu, near Baringo (plentiful), north of Guas Ngiro (plentiful) ; Embu and south of Embu, 

 and in various other localities being fairly common, but often shy. 



ELEPHANT. 



Native Names. 



Swahili (Mombasa) Ndovu. .. . rOl-tome: 



Swahili (Zanzibar) Tembo. COl-le-'ngaina. 



Kikuyu Njogu. Ogieg Karabta (?). 



Kavirondo Liech. Borana Araba. 



Kitaita Chovu. Galla Arba. 



Ogiek (Ravine) Pelio. Kitukutuku Mbungu. 



Luganda Njovu. Alui Liachi. 



Ba (Enclave) Owah. 



Types. — There are a number of different types of elephant, easily recognised by ivory 

 experts by the difference in their tusks. The coast ivory is small and of poor quality, whilst the 

 hill ivory is closer grained and of better quality. The " Uganda " type of ivory, short, thick, and 

 heavy in tusk, is found in Masindi, the Budonga Forest, and on both the British and Belgian banks 

 of the Nile. It is a soft ivory, and of greater value than hard ivory. The " Congo "' varieties, 

 long, thin, and graceful tusks, weighing light, are met with on the Semliki and in the thicker 

 country, back from the Nile, in the Congo. These are hard ivories. 



Food. — In addition to the usual foods of grass and the leaves and barks of various trees, 

 elephants eat bamboo. The usual procedure is to bend over the stem of the bamboo bow 

 fashion, six or eight feet from the ground, until it gives and hangs over. The animals then strip 

 off the leaves. 



In bamboo-country it can be seen at a glance where elephants have been, as there will be 

 bamboos in every direction in the shape of arches, and several together resemble the framework 

 of a bower. When convolvulus and other creeping plants have crept up the broken stems and 

 covered in the top the resemblance is complete. Besides eating the leaves of the bamboo, 

 elephants often break off young shoots and chew the stems, afterwards spitting them out again. 



Below the forest levels of the Aberdares and Kenya there is, in the belt of bush, a shrub 

 called by the Kikuyu masasumua. This grows in profusion, and is also a favourite food. The 

 elephants, as a rule, in these parts leave the higher levels of forest and bamboo only at night to 

 go down to eat the masasumua and also the grass of the plains. The bush is, I believe, a kind 

 of wild tea. 



In Uganda and the Congo, elephants often at night get into the fields and feed on the crops 

 and the young banana-trees. A large herd will sometimes completely destroy an outlying field 

 during a single night, and pull up all the young banana-trees. On the site of an old and 

 deserted field may generally be found remains of millet or other crops which have gone to seed. 

 These spots are favourite resorts for elephants, as they can there feed without having to approach 

 near any habitation. 



