KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMI^NS HANDLINGAE. BAND 48. N:0 5. 117 



Gitth of trunk 70 cm. from the tusk • 90 cm. 



» I » » 50 cm. further down , 73 » 



» » » 50 » » » 53 » 



» » » at the end 40 » 



Height of animal at the sacral region 290 >> 



Breadth of .sole ot hind foot 30 » 



Leligth » ■ » » » » . . 52 » 



The height at the shoulders could not be measured because I could not straighten 

 the forelegs of the animal. 



The iris was 23 mm. and the pupil 11 nim, 



Twelve centimetres above the posterior corner of the eye the orifice of a gland 

 opened with a duct about wide enough to admit a common lead pencil. But it was 

 almost plugged with a number of broken thorns of acacias and similar small twigs. 

 I heard from Cunninghame that the Elephants, so to say, perspire from this gland 

 sometimes so that a dark and damp spot is seen on the forehead round the orifice. 

 A similar statement has also been made by F. C. Selous* who observes that such 

 a wetting of the skin around the gland always appears »after a run in thehotsun*.. 



In the Indian Elephant the corresponding gland has been regarded as a scent 

 gland which principally works at the rutting season. 



As I have material of this gland preserved I hope to be able at another op- 

 portunity to publish some notes of its structure which may give some information 

 about its function. 



This Elephant was a rniddle aged and medium sized animal, a herd bull so to 

 say. The testes contained ripe sperms which have been described by G. Retzius.' 

 They proved to be even comparatively speaking very small, »ungefahr von der Grosse 

 derjenigen des Mehschen, welche schon an sich als klein zu betrachten sind» (1. c. p. 3). 



The propagation of the Elephants at this place appeared to be normal as the 

 females seen were accompanied by young. Once about a dozen female Elephants 

 with »calves» of varying size passed our camp. At another opportunity Sjogren and 

 CuNNiNGHAME came unawares near two females with small young. The Elephants 

 charged with a squeal and Cunninghame had to shoot one of them in self defense. 

 To judge from the spoor the bulls went mostly single or by twos. Some tracks in- 

 dicated animals which were larger than the one shot by me. 



When one sees the leafless dry thornbush it does not look inviting to any 

 animal, and it appears impossible that such animals as Elephants shall be able to 

 find their food there. The question is near at hand, what can they feed on? If 

 one follows a fresh spoor of an Elephant it is soon seen that he is not very parti- 

 cular in this respect. Sometimes he has twisted off the top of a bush and put in 

 his mouth chewing it all but dropping pieces of twigs now and then. Sometimes he 

 has torn off a branch of an acacia (those with greenish yellow bark appear to be 

 preferred) thick as an arm, and it all wanders the same way under the powerful 



1 Conf. Lydekkbr: The Game Animals of Africa, p. 16. 



2 Biol. UntersuchuDgen N. F., Bd. XVI, p. 3. 



