MAMMALIA. 259 



herd turned upon him although they were previously 

 quite unaware of his presence, and he only saved his 

 life by running and hiding himself in a bush. 



The Elephants near the Abyssinian coast migrate with 

 the season, coming to the coast in the winter and spring, 

 when rain falls and there is abundance of green food, 

 and returning to the hUls about June and July, when 

 the monsoon rain commences. They ascend the various 

 plateaux near the Anseba valley to a height of 7,000 or 

 8,000 feet, partly in all probability to escape from the 

 flies, which are very troublesome in the lower ground at 

 that season. 



All of the Elephants in Eastern and Northern Abyssinia 

 appear to be almost tuskless or to have very small and 

 short tusks, a, most unusual occurrence in the African 

 Elephant, though tuskless varieties of the Asiatic species 

 are extremely common in India and other parts of South- 

 eastern Asia, and in Ceylon a tusker is very rare indeed. 

 In Western Abyssinia, on the Barka, Mareb, and Atbara, 

 the Elephants have fine tusks, and are much hunted in 

 consequence. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, in his description of the Elephant 

 of Ceylon, especially notices the circumstance that all 

 the animals in one herd are generally, if not always, part 

 of the same family. The little herd killed by us at 

 Kokai evidently consisted of an old female and four 

 younger Elephants, her ofispring in different stages of 

 growth ; and subsequently Captain Mockler saw a herd 

 of nine, consisting in a similar manner of a very large 

 female" and of eight younger animals varying in size 



S2 



