262 WILD ANIMALS. 



keen power of scent ; these two senses enable them to keep clear 

 of and detect danger, for their eyes are small and not very- 

 long-sighted, and the neck being so short the range that can be 

 given their vision is somewhat limited. This fact is probably the 

 reason that they express so much alarm at trivial noises or at 

 indistinct objects, which necessarily must excite suspicions for their 

 safety, and arouse the instincts given these huge creatures for 

 their self-protection. The object of the eyes being so small may 

 probably be found in the fact that they are comparatively less 

 exposed to injury from the branches in the thick forests through 

 which the animals have to force their way. Dust, dirt, or small 

 insects that may accidentally get in the eyes are easily dislodged, 

 for the nictitating membranes with which they are provided clear 

 them at once. " Solid and imperturbable as the countenance of the 

 elephant is, the eye is very eloquent of the animal's feelings," re- 

 marks a writer on this subject. " In a state of calm it is exceedingly 

 mild and gentle in appearance, being shaded and softened by the 

 ample lashes above and below, but when the animal is alarmed 

 or angry the veil of hair is at once withdrawn and the eye-ball 

 protrudes with a peculiarly keen look in its glittering iris." It is 

 always well, therefore, in approaching a strange animal to look 

 first at the eye, wherein you can at once detect whether the feel- 

 ings with which it regards you are friendly or the reverse. 



The legs of an elephant are peculiarly adapted for sustaining 

 the enormous weight of such a ponderous body, for they are of 

 solid construction and the joints so formed that each bone rests 

 vertically upon the one beneath it. Owing to the apparent want 

 of flexibility caused by the elbow and knee being so very near the 

 foot, and to the fact that elephants lie down less than any other 

 quadrupeds, it was for ages supposed that they were jointless, and 

 lying down was an impossible position for them to assume. This 

 is gravely stated in more than one natural history book of the 

 present century. Elephants lie down to sleep every third or fourth 

 night, but will occasionally sleep for months without doing so. 

 An animal, owned by the Zoological Society in London, named 

 Jack, "whose amusing tricks and docile manner," says the Times 

 of June, 1847, " had rendered him everybody's favourite," died 



