253 EXISTING INDIAN ELEPHANT. 



somewhat short and thick in some, and long and more 

 slender in others. The fringe of bristles to the tail is 

 variable in degree, according to the sex, age, and vigour of 

 the animal. A good fringe is seldom retained long in cap- 

 tivity ; when present, it always enhances the price of the 

 animal in the estimation of the natives of India. That the 

 animal varies considerably in appearance, according to the 

 district in which he has been captured, has long been well 

 known in India. Aboo Fuzl, in his account of the Elephant 

 stables of Akbar, enumerates six varieties, distinguished by 

 form, different marks, or colouring ; ' and the experienced 

 mahouts attached to the Government Commissariat in Bengal 

 will tell, at a glance, the district where a recently caught 

 Elephant has been bred ; 2 whether the Sal Forests of the 

 North- West Provinces, Assam, Silhet, Chittagong, Tipperah, 

 or Cuttack. The distinction, therefore, founded upon the 

 external characters of E. Sumatranus, completely fails. 



I believe that the same could be shown, as regards the 

 asserted difference of intelligence and aptitude for instruc- 

 tion ; but as this is not a tangible, specific character, I leave 

 it undiscussed. 



The Osteological distinctions in the skull, which Professor 

 Schlegel advanced in Temminck's work, he has since seen 

 reason to abandon. But the identity of form is a strong 

 argument in support of the unity of species. Not only is the 

 general form of the cranium alike in both, but the relative 

 proportions and connections of the constituent bones are 

 the same in the wild Elephant of the North-West Provinces 

 and in that of Ceylon. The difference of variety, implied by 

 the terms ' Muhna,' ' small-tusked,' and ' Dauntela,' large- 

 tusked, necessarily involves a proportional degree of dif- 

 ference, in the development of the intermaxillary bones, in 

 the depth and breadth of the trough between the tusk- 

 sheaths, and in the amount of development of the occipital 

 bosses. But the connections of the bones remain the same ; 

 and all the leading modifications of form and proportion, so 

 clearly indicated by Cuvier, as distinctive of the Indian from 

 the African form, are maintained in the Continental and 

 Ceylon Elephants, within a range of variation which is 

 common to both. 



The metropolitan collections furnish excellent and au- 

 thentic materials for testing the accuracy of this statement 

 in two magnificent skulls of adult wild Elephants, both 

 killed in combat by gunshot wounds. The one (No. 2656, 



1 Ayeen-Akberry, translated by Gladwin, vol. i. p. 126. 

 '' Hooker, ' Himalayan Journals,' vol. ii. p. 302. 



