394 VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY 



hitting qualities will stop their mad rush. They have a fairly wide 

 distribution, being native to both India and Africa. The fossil record 

 of the ancestry of the rhinoceros is almost as complete as that of the 

 horse, and the two groups appear to converge upon a common an- 

 cestral group. The early rhinoceroses must have looked more hke 

 horses than the present forms, which have grown heavy of limb and 

 body and are no longer typically cursorial. 



Order 12. Proboscidia (Elephants). — This group- comprises the 

 largest and in many respects the most highly specialized of terrestrial 

 mammals. They are characterized by the elongation of the nose and 

 upper lip into a very long trunk; by the possession of five functional 

 digits on both fore and hind feet; by the specialization of the incisor 

 teeth of the upper jaw into great tusks; and by the extreme type of 

 lophodont molar teeth. The skull is immensely thick and the bones 

 contain large air cavities; there is no clavicle; the cerebral hemi- 

 spheres are much convoluted, but they do not cover the cerebellum; 

 the testes are abdominal in position. 



Elephants walk with the legs stiff, almost as if they were jointless, 

 an adaptation for bearing the great weight; for it would require great 

 muscular effort to support the huge bulk of these animals upon a 

 bent type of limb. Two families of Proboscidia are distinguished: 

 Elephantidce and Dinotheridoe. The latter were Miocene forms char- 

 acterized by great downwardly directed tusks of the lower jaw. 



There are but two living species of elephant, the Indian elephant 

 (Fig. 201), Elephas indicus, and the African elephant (Fig. 202), E. 

 africanus. The African species is the larger, and has much larger 

 ears. The largest specimen on record is probably the notorious 

 "Jumbo," which was about eleven feet high at the shoulder. African 

 elephants are wild and intractable as compared with their Indian 

 cousins; and therefore are seldom seen in circus parades. The Indian 

 elephant is the common circus elephant, a smaller and more manage- 

 able type. In its native country it is used extensively as an equipage 

 and as a beast of burden. As a species, however, they are not de- 

 pendable, some being vicious and others perfectly docile in disposi- 

 tion. In nature they are creatures of the jungle and are purely 

 herbivorous. They are capable of defending themselves against all 

 enemies except Man. An encounter between an elephant and a tiger 

 is one of the finest gladiatorial contests that the world affords. 



Elephants have been credited with extraordinary intelUgence, but 



