ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



831 



AFRICAN SUDAN ELEPHANTS: KARTOUM AND SULTANA. 

 Male at four years of age, was six feet, three inches and weighed 2,300 pounds. 



ably found in some other parts of the French 

 Congo, and I have heard of two other sections 

 in which they are said to exist. The district 

 described is about one degree thirty minutes 

 south latitude and about seven degrees east lon- 

 gitude. The intersection of those lines would 

 be near the centre of the district in which I have 

 heard of the mesalla as being most abundant. 



The ordinary type of African elephant is so well 

 known to science, and so frequently seen in cap- 

 tivity, that no description of it is here needed, 

 except such details as are involved in the com- 

 parison with mesalla, the pygmy. The larger 

 type grows to a height of about nine and one- 

 half to ten feet and evidently attains a weight 

 of five or six tons. The tusks of the larger males 

 sometimes reach seven feet in length, about four- 

 sevenths of which are exposed. The mesalla 

 elephant is said never to reach a height of seven 

 feet, and many of the natives say that it never 

 becomes taller than man. So far, there have 

 been in Africa no means of weighing any of 

 them accurately ; but the natives generally agree 

 that they never become heavier than a medium- 

 sized hippopotamus ; which would mean between 

 two and two and a half tons. 



The tusks of the mesalla are very small, and 

 rarely exceed twelve or fifteen inches in length 

 of the exposed part. In fact, I have often 

 heard it asserted that their tusks never reach a 

 foot in length ; but this statement is probably 

 erroneous. 



Another point in which the two types greatly 

 differ is in the size and shape of the ears. The 

 ear of a njagu, or large elephant, covers the 

 whole side of the neck ; and the lower edge of it 

 extends below the line of the lower jaw, as seen 

 in the cut given herewith. The extremity of it 

 laps about half way over the shoulder. 



The photograph here given is of a young ele- 

 phant in the Zoological Park, commonly called 

 the Sudan elephant. At three years of age the 

 male measured five feet, two and one-quarter 

 inches high and weighed 1,460 pounds. When 

 four years old he was six feet three inches high, 

 and weighed 2,300 pounds. It can thus be seen 

 that in about one year it gained nearly a foot in 

 height and nearly 1,000 pounds in weight. 



The next photograph represents the type 

 specimen referred to above, which is supposed to 

 be the pygmy mesalla, at eleven years of age. 

 It can readily be seen that the ears are of an 



