53 



discomfiture of that monarch's army." Theodorite : Hist. Eccles. 

 Book ii., p. 30. There is a curious legend among the Burmese 

 in which the crow, fly, and frog are made to work the destruction 

 of a rogue elephant. The former picking out his eyes, the fly 

 depositing eggs (which developed into maggots) in the sockets, 

 and the latter tempting (by its croak) the blind, thirsty animal to 

 the edge of a precipice — over which the poor beast fell and was 

 killed. 



In South Africa, too, the Tsetze Fly has proved a serious 

 enemy to the elephant, as to other large quadrupeds — its poison 

 giving rise to anthracoid symptoms and rapidly fatal results. We 

 have no record of the Gad Fly irritating the elephant, but it is 

 certain that maggots of the Common Fly in the stumps of broken 

 tusks and in other open wounds cause very serious inconvenience. 

 They may be got rid of by camphorated or terebinthinate dress- 

 ings or by Dikamali ointment or the juice of the cnstard apple. 

 Flies are more troublesome in the jungle than in the open and 

 are horribly frequent at certain times of the year. With regard 

 to EcTozoA PEOPEE — a Mahout recently questioned by me seemed 

 rather insulted when asked if he ever found any on his elephant 

 and said they were seen only on diseased or very badly cared for 

 animals. Dr. Cobbold tells us that Hcematomyzus elepkantis, a 

 hugh louse, and a mite named Symbiotes eleijhanlis v. Homopu* 

 elephantin (the position of which as a "good species" is doubt- 

 ful, it, probably, being an acarus from straw) have been found on 

 the elephant. A Bot, Pharyngoholus Africanus has been found 

 in tliG pharynx of the African species. 



Tennent argues that the white spots and patches found on 

 various parts of the body of the elephant " are not natural ; nor, 

 are they hereditary, for they are seldom exhibited by the younger 

 individuals of a herd, but appear to be the result of some eruptive 

 affection, the irritation of which has induced the animal in its 

 uneasiness to rub itself against the rough bark of trees and thus 

 to destroy the outer cuticle" and he argues that the scars of the 

 deep wounds caused by the capturing ropes often remain white. 



However, it has now been proved that the white blotches in 

 question are only albinic spots (such as are found on piebald 

 horses for instance) and their increase of size with age is only, 

 what might have been expected from our knowledge of similar: 



