CLASS-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 55 



covered with hair, and a short tail. He is found in 

 troops in Hindoostan, and is frequently domesticated. 



§ 202. The African Elephant (Elphas africanus) is a 

 native of the middle and south of Africa, but as a do- 

 mestic animal only in the interior of that continent. He 

 is eight feet high, and is hunted and killed merely for his 

 tlesh and ivory. 



§ 203. The food of Elephants consists principally of 

 the leaves of trees, rice, and other grains. 



§ 204. An Elephant, in the Botanic Garden at Paris has 

 daily 80 lbs. of bread, 8 quarts of wine, and 2 pails of boiled 

 rice. 



§ 205. The Elephant was regarded by the ancients as 

 a miracle of nature ; they ascribed to him intellectual 

 powers, moral virtues, rational manners, and even ideas 

 of religion. 



§ 206. The Hindoos are still persuaded that a body so 

 majestic as that of the Elephant must be animated with 

 the soul of a great man, or a king. 



§ 207. Elephants are neither sanguinary nor ferocious, 

 their manners are social, and their dispositions gentle ; 

 but it is dangerous to do them the smallest injury, for 

 they run straight upon the offender, overtake the most 

 agile man, and trample him under their feet. 



§ 208. It was formerly believed that the young sucks 

 with its trunk, but it is now ascertained that it sucks 

 with its mouth, like other Mammalia. 



§ 209. The first European who mounted an Elephant, 

 was Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. Hannibal 

 transported Elephants from Africa, and made them pass 

 the Alps, where a number of them perished, the bones of 

 which are still found. 



§ 210. A disease called Elephantiasis, to which Ele- 

 phants are often subject, is a dry leprosy, which some- 

 times causes the scarf skin to grow three or four lines 

 thick. 



§211. The Asiatic Rhinoceros (Rhinocerus asiaticus) is 

 twelve feet long and six feet high, of a dark-gray color, 

 has three hoofs on each foot, one horn upon his nose 



