ELEPHA3 INUICUS. 



231 



others were driven, after days of preparation, into large enclosures ; and 

 occasionally one or two were captured by female decoys taken out for the 

 purpose. The elephant rarely breeds in confinement. The female has 

 generally one young at a birth. 



Of the value of the tame elephant, its docility, intelligence, &c., numerous 

 popular accounts have been written, and are familiar to all. Sir J. Tennent 

 has given the most recent and authentic history of the elephant in Ceylon.* 

 Tigers are almost always shot from off elephants, and a well-trained one 

 will stand the charge of a tiger without flinching, though naturally one of 

 the most timorous of animals.' Elephants are used in India occasionally 

 to drag heavy pieces of ordnance, but their chief use is in carrying tent 

 equipage for troops, and to assist in the transport of logs of timber from 

 forests to river banks. 



A peculiar race or species, E. sumatranus, Schlegel, is stated to occur 

 in Sumatra, and the Ceylon elephant was by some considered to be of 

 this race, but that opinion was opposed by Dr. Falconer. 



The Sumatran elephant has twenty pairs of ribs, and the laminse of the 

 teeth are wider than in the Indian species. It is said to be of more slender 

 make, and to be more remarkable for its intellectual development than the 

 Indian. 



The African elephant, Elephas africanus, Cuvier, is not now tamed in 

 Africa, though it appears to have been so in the time of the Carthaginians. 

 The tusks are very large, and are nearly of the same size in the male and 

 female. 



The Mammoth, Elephas primogenius, appears to have been tolerably 

 well clad with hair of two kinds, and was therefore probably an inhabitant 

 of cold climates. It has been found in both continents. The Mastodons, 

 which are quite extinct now, have the molar teeth with large conical tuber- 

 cles, and there are small tusks in the lower jaw of the immature animal. 

 They have been found in both continents. 



Tribe, Perissodactyla, Owen. 



With an uneven number of toes on the hind-feet at least. This tribe 

 comprises part of the Pachydermata ordinaria of Cuvier (excluding those 

 with clo.ven feet, the hippopotamus and pigs) and the Solidlungula. 



The crown of some of the praemolars is complex hke that of the molars • 



* Wanderings in Ceylon, and Natural History of Ceylon. 



