MAMMALIA. BRUT A. Elephant. 115 



3ioff. By the figure, this animal is very thick and clnmfy, with ftrong thick legs and feet ; which 

 ■laft are each armed with four knobs, or half hoofs, on their fore parts ; the nofe is very broad and 

 truncated; the ears are Very large and flouching ; the tail is covered with flowing hairs, and reaches 

 lower than the middle of the hind legs; the Ikin is fmooth, and is entirely free from plaits, like thofc 

 on the one-horned Rhinoceros. 



XI. ELEPHANT.— 10. ELEPHAS. $. 



Has no fore-teeth in either jaw, and no tufks in the lower 

 jaw; the tufks of the upper jaw are very long, and ftretch 

 far out of the mouth: Has a long, extenhle, and flexible, 

 cartilaginous trunk, or probofcis, on the nofe, which is ca- 

 pable of laying hold even of very minute objects. The body 

 is alrnoft naked. 



1, Great Elephant. — r. Elephas maxlmus. 1. 

 There is only one known fpecies of this genus. 



Elephas. BrifT. quad. 45. Raj. quad. 131. Seba, Muf. i. t. iii. f. 1. — Elephantis. Gefn. quad. 

 377. Aldr. quad. 1. i. c. 9. Jonft. quad. 30. t. 7. 8. 9. Edw. av. t. 221. f. 1. — Elephant. Sm. Buff. 

 ■vi. 1. pi. clxiii. — Great Elephant. Penn. hift. of quad. n. 70. Schreber, ii. 6c. tab. lxxviii. Br. 

 muf. Aflim. muf. Lever, muf. Hunter's muf. Petr. G. Camper, Elephantographia, Lipf. 1723. 

 P. Gilius, nov. defc. Eleph. at the end of Elianus de anim. Lugd. 1565, viii. 497.-525. Fr. Serao, 

 tip. de fific. Napol. 1766. v. 1 — 62. t. 1 — Its anatomy. Bibl. med. Dublin. 1681. 



Inhabits the Torrid Zone, in Afia and Africa. — This wonderful animal is principally found in 

 fwampy places, by the fides of rivers : It lives on the bark, leaves, and branches, of young trees and 

 fhrubs ; being principally deftruftive to plantains, or the Muf a paradifiaca, Cocco palms, and the Gul- 

 latidina femina, devouring even the wood of the mula ; and feeds voracioufly on grain, doing vaft da- 

 mage in corn fields. It is a gregarious animal, remarkably long lived, very docile, and exceedingly 

 "fagacious, notwithftanding that the brain is extremely fmall in proportion to the bulk of the bod)-. 

 The probofcis, which is compofed of a great number of cartilaginous rings, is very long, and is ca- 

 pable of extenfion and contraction in every direction ; it is fmooth below, and truncated at the ex- 

 tremity, where it is provided with a moveable hook, which ferves the purpofe of a hand, and with 

 which the animal can lift the fmalleft objects from the ground with great accuracy; this trunk is an 

 extenfion of the canals of the nofe, and is divided, through its whole length, by a continuation of tr e 

 feptum ; by means of this, the animal is delicately fenfible of fmells ; by it, likewife, he carries :■: 

 and drink to the mouth, fucking up liquids, through its canals, into receptacles within the head, 2 

 afterwards injecting them into the mouth; this is likewife a chief inftrument of offence again' 

 mies, and is fo very neceflary, that, when the trunk is cut off, the animal unavoidably die. 

 exceedingly afraid of mice, left, when afleep, they fhould get through the trunk into the w 



Pa 



