$8 THE ELEPHANT. 



whofe neck alio has little flexibility,, the mother 

 rauft have lain on her back or fide to enable her 

 young to lay hold of the teat with its mouth ; 

 and, even in this fituation, it would have been 

 difficult to extract the milk, on account of the 

 enormous difproportion between the largenefs of 

 the mouth and the fmallnefs of the teat. Buc 

 the margin of the trunk, which the animal con- 

 tracts at pleafure, is eafily accommodated to the 

 teat, and enables the young elephant to fuck the 

 mother either when fhe ftands or lies on her fide. 

 Thus every circumftance concurs in invalidating 

 the notion of the ancients on this fubjecl ; for 

 none of them, nor even any of the moderns, al- 

 ledge that they ever faw the elephant fucking; 

 and I have no hefitation in predicting, that, 

 whenever fuch an obfervatipn is made, it will 

 appear, that he fucks not with his mouth, but 

 with his nofe. I likewife imagine that the an- 

 cients are deceived, when they tell us, that the 

 elephants copulate like other quadrupeds, the 

 lemale only lowering her crupper*, for the more 

 cafy reception of the male. The fituation of the 

 parts feems to render this mode of junction im- 

 poflible. The female elephant has not, like ci- 

 ther quadrupeds, the orifice of the vagina adja- 

 cent to the anus; for it is fituated nearly in the 

 middle of the belly, about two and a half, or 



three 



* Subfidit foemina, clunibufque fubmifiis, et infiftit pedibus ac 

 innititur; mas fuperveniens comprimit, atque ita munere vene- 

 reo fyngitur; Arifl. hift. anim. lib. 5. cap. 2. 



