386 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



ELEPHANT. 



The intelligence of the elephant is no doubt considerable^ 

 although there is equally little doubt that it is generally 

 exaggerated. Some of the most notorious instances of 

 the display of remarkable sagacity by this animal are 

 probably fabulous, or at least are not suflSciently corrobo- 

 rated to justify belief. Such, for instance, is the cele- 

 brated story told by Pliny with all the assurance of a 

 ' certum est,'' ^ and repeated by Plutarch,^ of the elephant, 

 who having been beaten for not dancing properly, was 

 afterwards found practising his steps alone in the light of 

 the moon. Although this story cannot, in the absence of 

 corroboration, be accepted as fact, we ought to remember, 

 in connection with it, that many talking and piping birds 

 unquestionably practise in solitude the accomplishments 

 which they desire to learn. 



Quitting, however, the enormous multitude of anec- 

 dotes, more or less doubtful, and which may or may not 

 be true, I shall select a few well-authenticated instances 

 of the display of elephant intelligence. 



Memory. 



As regards memory, several cases are on record of 

 tamed elephants having become wild, and, on again being 

 captured after many years, returning to all' their old 

 habits under domestication. Mr. Corse publishes in 

 the ' Philosophical Transactions ' ^ an instance which came 

 under his own notice. He saw an elephant, which 



» Plin., Hist. Nat., viii. 1-13. ^ j)^ f^i^rt. Anim., c, 12. 



' Philosophical Tra?isactions, 1799, p. 40. 



