48 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



elephants are always very delicate, and it is 

 believed to be impossible to rear them by hand. 

 Female elephants are very solicitous for their 

 young when with them ; but, judging from this 

 instance and others I have heard of, if anything 

 happens to separate the mother from the young 

 one, the former, unlike most animals, will not 

 return to look after it. 



At the first note of alarm all the babies in 

 a herd disappear as if by magic. They have 

 all got under their mothers' tummies. A young 

 calf can cover ten or fifteen miles without 

 undue fatigue, helped over bad places by its 

 mother. The trunk of a baby elephant is an 

 inert, wabbly piece of flesh about a foot in 

 length, and quite useless for drinking purposes. 

 The young suck the cows with the mouth in 

 common with the young of all animals. The 

 cows have their teats, two in number, in front, 

 between their forelegs. They give birth to 

 one calf at a time, twins being rarely heard of. 

 An old cow is invariably the leader of the herd, 

 and when alarmed the tuskers take a line of 

 their own. When travelling, elephants move 

 in single file, the tuskers generally bringing up 

 the rear. Elephants have very poor sight; 

 but when resting during the day and not feeding, 

 their hearing is often acute. When feeding 

 they make so much noise that they can be 

 approached without difficulty. The sense of 



