1871. J MR. SCEATER ON THE TUSKS OF ELEPHAS INOICUS. 145 



February 21, 1871. 



Osbert Salvia, Esq., F.Z.S., in the Chair. 



The Secretary announced the birth of a Hippopotamus {Hippo- 

 potamus amphibius) in the Society's Gardens, which had taken place 

 that day about 4.30 p.m. The Hippopotamus had previously bred 

 in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of Amsterdam and in the 

 Jardin des Plantes of Paris, but not in this country. Further par- 

 ticulars of this interesting occurrence were promised to be given 

 from Mr. Bartlett's notes at the next meeting of the Society. 



The Secretary exhibited on the part of Mr. Edwin Ward, F.Z.S., 

 a collection of heads of mammals made in Ladakh by Mr. George 

 Landseer. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a pair of tusks of a female Indian Elephant 

 (Elephas indicus), which presented the appearance of having been 

 corroded or eaten away in the basal portion, immediately adjacent 

 to where they entered the gums. Just below this, on the outer 

 side of each tusk, was deposited a mass of egg-like bodies arranged 

 in regular series, apparently of some dipterous insect, and somewhat 

 resembling those of the common Blowfly (Musca vomitoria). These 

 tusks had been submitted to Mr. Bartlett for examination, by Mr. 

 G. S. Roden, of the 1st Royals, lately stationed in India, who had 

 communicated to Mr. Sclater the following note on the subject : 



"The tusks which I left with Mr. Bartlett belonged to a female 

 elephant, which I shot last June at a place called « Muddry,' at the 

 foot of the Manantowady Mountains in Malabar. 



" Directly after shooting her I lifted up her lips to see the size of 

 the tusks, and then noticed the deposit of eggs on them. I had 

 them carefully cut out. On cleaning the tusks afterwards I noticed 

 tbat they had been eaten away at the ends, and also near where the 

 white eggs were. There were no maggots in the grooves at the end 

 of the tusks ; they were merely filled up with some dark dry clay, 

 just the same as what you see the eggs now surrounded by. The 

 tusks have been slightly polished over ; but I took great care that 

 the eggs should not be touched." 



Mr. Sclater remarked that a previous notice of the same pheno- 

 menon had appeared in a letter addressed to the ' Field ' newspaper 

 on the 12th March last, signed by a well-known Indian sportsman, 

 under the pseudonym of " Smoothbore " *. 



Mr. Sclater added that he had been informed by Prof. Flower 



* " Has any zoologist or microscopist ever noticed how the tusks of female 

 elephants are attacked and eaten away by some parasite ? and is it not most 

 singular that, this has never been observed in the tusks of the male?" — Field 

 March 12, 1870. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1871, No. X. 



