PARTS OF ANIMALS, II. xvi. 



elephant has to make his way through deep water, 

 he will put his trunk up to the surface and breathe 

 through it. This is possible, because, as I have said 

 already, the trunk is really a nostril. Now it would 

 have been impossible for the nostril to be put to all 

 these uses if it had not been soft and able to bend ; 

 for then by its very length it would have prevented 

 the animal from getting its food, just as they say the 

 horns of the " backward-grazing " oxen do, forcing 

 them to walk backwards as they feed.^ So the trunk 

 is soft and pliable ; and in consequence Nature, as 

 usual, takes advantage of this to make it discharge 

 an extra function beside its original one : it has to 

 serve instead of forefeet. Now in polydactylous 

 quadrupeds the forefeet are there to serve as hands, 

 not merely in order to support the weight of the 

 animal ; but elephants (which must be included under 

 this class of animals, because they have neither a 

 solid hoof nor a cloven one) are so large and so heavy 

 that their forefeet can serve only as supports ; and 

 indeed they are no good for anything else because 

 they move so slowly and are quite unsuited for 

 bending. 



So the elephant's nostril is there, in the first place, 

 to enable him to breathe (as in all animals that have 

 a lung) ; and also it is lengthened and able to coil 

 itself round things because the elephant spends 

 much of his time in the water and cannot quickly 

 emerge upon land. And as his forefeet are not 

 available for the normal function, Nature, as we 

 said, presses the trunk into service to supply what 

 should have been forthcoming from the feet. 



The Birds and Serpents and the quadrupeds which 



*» See above, on 6-A8 a 16. This is from Herodotus, iv. 183. 

 g2 195- 



