MAMMOTH, OR FOSSIL ELEPHANT. 509 



2. ELEPHAS INDICUS. The Elephant with elongated 

 skull, concave forehead, small ears, grinders marked 

 with undulating bands, which we call the Indian Ele- 

 phant (Elephas Indicus), is a quadruped which has only 

 been observed with certainty beyond the Indus. It ex- 

 tends from both sides of the Ganges to the Eastern Sea 

 and the south of China. They are also found in the 

 Islands of the Indian Sea, in Ceylon, Java, Borneo, Su- 

 matra, See. There is still no authentic proof that it 

 exists in any part of Africa, although neither is the con- 

 trary absolutely proved. The inhabitants of India 

 having from time immemorial been in the habit of taking 

 this species and taming it, it has been much better ob- 

 served than the other. Varieties have been remarked as 

 to size, lightness of form, the length and direction of the 

 tusks, and the colours of the skin. The females and 

 some of the males have tusks which are always small and 

 straight. The tusks of the other males never attain so 

 great a length as in the African species *. The natural 

 number of the hoofs is Jive before and four behind. The 

 ear is small, frequently angular. The skin is commonly 

 grey, spotted with brown. There are individuals entirely 

 white. The height varies from fifteen to sixteen feet. 

 Its manners, the mode of taking it, and of treating it, 

 have been carefully described by many travellers and na- 

 turalists, from Aristotle down to Mr Corse Scott. 



* In A. W. Schlegel's Contributions to the History of the Ele- 

 phant, in the Indische Bibliothek, i. 2, are enumerated many facts 

 not generally known regarding the African and Asiatic Elephants, 

 and the details are accompanied with interesting inferences. 



