832 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



PYGMY AFRICAN ELEPHANT {Elephas pamilio). 

 Congo type of mesalla at eleven years of age. Height five feet and weight 1,650 pounds. 



entirely different type. They are very much 

 smaller in size, have a reverse curve in the lower 

 edge and a rounded point resembling a lobule. 

 The lower point of this is far above the line 

 of the neck, and the ear is but little more than 

 half the area of that of the Sudan type. The 

 relative sizes and weights of the two animals are 

 still more striking. The pygmy mesalla at six 

 years of age measured only three feet eight 

 inches in height and weighed 600 pounds, while 

 at eleven years of age he stands only five feet 

 high and weighs only 1,650 pounds, from which 

 it may be seen that in five years he gained only 

 one foot four inches in height and a little more 

 than 1,000 pounds in weight. 



In June, 1905, Carl Hagenbeck offered to the 

 New York Zoological Society a small and evi- 

 dently young African elephant which was in- 

 stantly recognized as representing a species 

 never before seen in captivity, so far as records 

 were available. The price asked, $2,500, was 

 about twice the amount that would have been 

 sufficient for an elephant of that size represent- 

 ing any of the known species. The specimen 



from the French Congo was immediately pur- 

 chased ; but before it left Hamburg it was seen 

 by Prof. Noakes, and by him it was described 

 as a new species, and christened Elephas pu- 

 milio. 



While the specimen here represented con- 

 forms in many ways to the description of 

 mesalla, it is barely possible that it may not be 

 the true mesalla of the Fernan Vaz basin ; but 

 at any rate, the differences between him and 

 other African elephants are so great as to put 

 him in a group by himself. If not a true 

 mesalla, which is suggested by the size of his 

 tusks, he is probably an intermediate type be- 

 tween the njuga and mesalla. 



Another very important characteristic that 

 distinguishes the mesalla from all other ele- 

 phants and which has been frequently described 

 to me and emphasized, is the malicious nature 

 of this elephant in a wild state. It is currently 

 reported in the district that I have pointed out 

 that very few native hunters, or white hunters 

 either, as to that, however well armed they may 

 be, have the temerity to hunt the mesalla, or to 



