2£6 EXISTING INDIAN ELEPHANT. 



authority of accurate or original observation. He even 

 asserts that the 'undulated ribbons of enamel are nearly 

 quite as wide as those forming the lozenges of the African.' 



Last year, Professor Schlegel, whose attention has been 

 continually directed to the subject since 1845, communicated 

 a paper to the Academy of Sciences of Holland, in which he 

 lays claim to the authorship of the opinion first put forward in 

 Temmmck's work, and maintains it upon extended observation. 1 



In order to facilitate their examination, I shall classify the 

 distinctions which have been adduced, from first to last, in 

 support of the view, although some of them have been 

 abandoned in the progress of the inquiry. 



I. External characters. — Small ears and general form, 

 both, as in the Continental Elephant; but the Sumatran 

 species more slender and more finely built; trunk longer 

 and more slender ; extremity of the tail more dilated, and 

 invested with longer and stronger bristles, in this respect 

 reminding one more of the African than the Indian sj)ecies. 

 (Schlegel.) 



II. Greater degree of intelligence and aptitude for instruction. 

 (Diard in Schlegel.) ' 



III. Osteological characters. 



(A.) General construction of the skeleton and form of the 

 cranium alike, but : 



1. Free part of intermaxillaries shorter and narrower. 



2. Nasal aperture more contracted. 



3. Inter-orbital space narrower. 



4. Posterior part of the cranium wider. (Schlegel in 

 Tenrininck.) 



5. Form of skull intermediate between African and Indian. 

 (C. L. Buonaparte.) 



(B.) Molar teeth. — Ribbons (discs of wear) in form like 

 those of the Indian species, i.e. the enamel-plates highly 

 crimped, parallel, and free from the rhomb-shaped expansion 

 of the African Elephant ; but the ribbons wider (in the 

 direction of the long axis), and consequently less numerous 

 than in the Indian species ; the difference being in the ratio 

 of 3 or 4 : 1 in the Sumatran, and 4 or 6 : 1 in the Con- 

 tinental Indian form (Schlegel in Temminck). Ribbons of 

 enamel nearly quite as wide as in the African Elephant. 

 (C. L. Buonaparte.) 



(C.) Vertebral and ribs. — The following numerical differ- 

 ences have been indicated by Prof. Schlegel ; they vary in 

 some unimportant respects, according to the statements of 

 different dates : — 



1 ' Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis van Olifanten, voornamelijk, Elephas Surna- 

 tranus,' translated by Dr. Sclater, Nat. Hist. Keview, 1862, vol. ii. p. 72. 



