UNITY OR PLURALITY OF SPECIES. 



255 



called E. Sumatranus, inhabiting' Sumatra and Ceylon and 

 probably extending also to the Trans-Gangetic portion of 

 the Continent. Let us see upon what evidence these asser- 

 tions are founded. 



The opinion, so far as I am aware, was first broached, but in 

 a very general and conjectural way, by Mr. B. H. Hodgson, 

 the eminent ethnologist and explorer of the zoology of Nepaul, 

 who, in a communication to the Zoological Society, in 1834, 

 suggested that there are two varieties, or 'perhaps rather 

 species,' of the Indian Elephant, the Ceylonese and that of 

 the Sal forests : the Ceylonese having a smaller and lighter 

 head, which is carried more elevated, and having also higher 

 fore- quarters ; while the Elephant of the Sal forests has 

 sometimes five nails on its hinder feet. 1 



In 1847, Temminck brought out a work embodying a 

 general survey of the resources and productions of the Dutch 

 East India possessions, in which there appeared a brief 

 notice of a supposed new species of Elephant, named E. Su- 

 matranus. 2 As Temminck's strength as a naturalist lay in 

 ornithology, the announcement did not carry with it the 

 weight of authority, when opposed to the opinion of Cuvier 

 and other eminent zoologists. But it now appears that the 

 inference originated with the distinguished Dutch zoologist, 

 Professor Schlegel, and that Temminck's work was simply 

 the vehicle in which the results arrived at by the latter first 

 appeared. 



In 1847 I visited Leyden, for the express object of exa- 

 mining the materials preserved in the Museum there, upon 

 which E. Sumatranus was founded ; by the aid of Prof. Van 

 der Hoeven I was enabled to see them, although only in a 

 cursory manner, owing to the shortness of the time at my 

 disposal ; but the inspection failed to satisfy me that E. Su- 

 matranus was distinct from the Continental Indian Elephant, 

 with which I had been familiar in its native haunts, during 

 many years. 



In 1849, the late Prince of Canino (Charles L. Buonaparte) 

 made a communication to the Zoological Society, in which 

 he affirmed that E. Sumatranus of Temminck was inter- 

 mediate between the Continental Indian and African Ele- 

 phants ; and that the differences in the form of the skull 

 and in the teeth were so pronounced as to put an end with 

 certainty to the subgeneric distinction between Elephas 

 proper and Loxodon. 3 But there are errors of statement in 

 the Prince of Canino's brief notice which divest it of the 



96. 



1 Zoological Proceedings, 1834, p. 

 ' Coup d'ceil general sur les Pos- 



sessions Neederlandaises,' &c. 8to. 1847, 

 torn. ii. p. 91. 



3 Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1849, p. 144. 



