408 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



veracity,' of an elephant in India which the keeper was in 

 the habit of leaving to play the part of nurse to his child 

 when he and his wife had occasion to go away from home. 

 The elephant was chained up, and whenever the child in 

 its creeping about came to the end of the elephant's 

 tether, he used gently to draw it back again with his 

 trunk. 



In ' Nature,' vol. xix., p. 385, Mr. J. J. Furniss 

 writes : — 



In Central Park one very hot day my attention was drawn 

 to the conduct of an elephant which had been placed in an 

 enclosure in the open air. On the ground was a large heap of 

 newly-mown grass, which the sagacious animal was taking up by 

 the trunkful, and laying carefully upon his sun-heated back. He 

 continued the operation until his back was completely thatched^ 

 when he remained quiet, apparently enjoying the result Of hia 

 ingenuity. 



Mr. Furniss in a later communication (vol. xx., p. 21) 

 continues : — 



Since the publication of my former letter (as above), I 

 have received additional data bearing on the subject from Mr. 

 W. A. Conklin, the superintendent of the Central Park 

 Menagerie. I am informed by him that he has frequently 

 observed elephants, when out of doors in the hot sunshine^ 

 thatch their backs with hay or grass; that they do so to a 

 certain extent when under cover in the summer time, and when 

 the flies which then attack the animals, often so fiercely as to 

 draw blood, are particularly numerous ; but that they never 

 attempt to thatch their backs in winter. This seems to prove 

 that they act intelligently for the attainment of a definite end. 

 It would be interesting to learn whether elephants in their 

 wild state are in the habit of so thatching their backs. It 

 seems more probable to suppose that in their native wilds they 

 would avail themselves of the natural shade afforded by the 

 jungle, and that the habit is one which has been developed 

 in consequence of their changed surroundings in captivity. 



Mr. Gr. E. Peal writes to ' Nature ' (vol. xxi., p. 34) : — 



One evening, soon after my arrival in Eastern Assam, and 

 while the five elephants were as usual being fed opposite the 

 bungalow, I observed a young and lately caught one step up to- 

 a bamboo-stake fence, and quietly pull one of the stakes up. 



