THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. 38Q 



mainder of this volume ; and the extent, not the scantiness 

 of our knowledge concerning it, is, in fact, the fair apology for 

 the following confessedly imperfect sketch of its natural history. 

 Of the elephant there are two species -, and from an inattention 

 to this fact, or utter ignorance of it, general writers are inces- 

 santly confounding together facts which relate to one or other 

 in particular, and so causing much misapprehension and con- 

 tradiction. The African elephant (E. Africanus), which is only 

 hunted for the sake of its hide, flesh, and tusks, is generally 

 larger than the other, and does not appear ever to have been 

 brought to England 5 but the Indian elephant (E. Indicus}, is 

 so constantly exhibited as one of the principal characters in 

 our zoological collections, that there are comparatively few 

 persons who have not seen it. When compared with the 

 African elephant, the present species is observed to differ in 

 having the head elongated ; the ears shorter and much less 

 dilated ; the laminae of the molar teeth forming undulating 

 parallel lines, not rhomboidal ones ; and the hind-feet have four 

 hoofs, while those of the other species have but three. 



The Indian elephant inhabits all the southern countries of 

 Asia j as Cochin- China, Siam, Pegu, Ava, Hindostan, and the 

 adjacent islands, particularly Ceylon. Its height has been 

 greatly exaggerated, even by naturalists, for Cuvier and others 

 state it at fifteen or sixteen feet. Mr. Corse (now Mr. Corse 

 Scott), formerly superintendent of the East India Company's 

 elephants at Tiperah, a Bengalese province, never heard of more 

 than one elephant much higher than ten feet. This was a male, 

 and its height, accurately measured from the top of the shoulder 

 to the ground, was ten feet and a half -, from the ground to the 

 top of the head when set up, twelve feet two inches, and its 

 length from the front of the face to the root of the tail, fifteen 

 feet eleven inches. The Company's standard for serviceable 

 elephants, is seven feet and upwards, measured at the shoulder, 

 in the same manner as horses are. At the middle of the back, 

 which is curved unless the animals are aged or injured, they 

 are several inches higher. A living elephant's height is exceed- 



