240 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HI8T. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



when they got up to us, I asked what the excitement was about. They 

 then told me that an elephant had given birth to a calf in the stream and 

 they wanted to catch the calf, presumably to kill and eat. But as a young 

 calf was caught and brought to me the year before from a place not four 

 miles from this place, presumably of this very head, and as I had a deal 

 of bother over it, not being able to get sufficient milk to feed it on although 

 I had bought two cows to supply it with milk, I did not feel like being 

 saddled with another calf, so told the men that they were not to catch it. 

 I then told them to take us to the place where the birth took place. This 

 was in the bed of the Phatashin stream close by, and we soon got to the 

 spot. The elephant had selected a soft spot in the bed of the stream and 

 close to the water and dropped her calf there. The ground was a bit cut 

 up and the Burmans went poking about and soon unearthed a small bag 

 full of water. After this they crossed the stream which was only a couple 

 of yards wide (the water part) and dug about in another place where the 

 ground was turned up, and soon produced another bag, the "after-birth " 

 (achin) which was buried about a foot deep in the sand and pebbles. The 

 Burmans were highly delighted at the find, so I naturally asked them 

 what they were going to do with it, to which they replied " why, eat it of 

 course." They soon had the "after-birth" washed and tied up in their 

 sheets and were ready to go home and start cooking it, birb we were not 

 done with the beating, so went on and had two or three more beat^ in 

 which- we got a barking deer and a great big wild boar which they said 

 had killed a man on the very spur we got it on not two months before. 

 The man who was killed had followed up the boar from the paddy fields 

 and had wounded it with an arrow shot from a cross-bow and on following 

 it up, the boar charged him. He tried to climb a tree but the boar was 

 too quick for him and ripped him badly and he died of the wounds after 

 a few days. 



Talking of the parturition of elephants, Lieut. -Colonel G. H. Evans, 

 Superintendent of the Civil Veterinary Department of Burma, in his Trea- 

 tise on Elephants, Elephants and their Diseases, notes on page 96 that 

 an elephant gave birth to a calf at Pazundaung near Rangoon and that the 

 Burman attendant stated that the dam ate the "after-birth." I wonder 

 if this happens only in the domesticated state or whether wild elephants 

 eat it too. In the case noted by me the dam certainly did not eat the 

 " after-birth " for we found it intact. I have often noticed that domesti- 

 cated goats, cows, buffaloes and sheep eat the "after-birth." I would 

 be glad if some one would explain the reason of this to me. Does the 

 dam eat it to clear herself ? 



C. W. ALLAN, 

 Hbnzada, Burma, 2Qth Ma)-ch 1911. Divisional Forest Officer. 



