OF LIVING ELEPHANTS. 



217 



have never seen elephants, the manner in which these animals carry 

 their tusks." But, then, he should not have given large ones to the 

 female, which never carries such in the Indian species. 



I make these critical remarks on the work of my deceased confrere, 

 only because it is a matter of importance that serious errors contained 

 in a book, otherwise useful, should not be propagated. 



4. — Differences relative to the external Ears. 



Most of the characters which we are after stating, contributing to 

 the general configuration of the head, are perceptible on the outside ; 

 there is another still more external, and which may render the species 

 distinguishable at the first glimpse. I think also I was the first to 

 remark it ; it consists in the size of the ears. 



The Indian elephant has them of a moderate size; they are enormous, 

 and cover the entire shoulder in the African elephant. 



I satisfied myself on the first point : 1st, on three elephants which 

 I saw alive, and which I afterwards dissected ; two were from Ceylon, 

 and the third from Bengal : 2nd, on two others which I saw alive, and 

 on two which I examined when stuffed : 3rd, on all the figures well 

 known to belong to the species of the Indian elephant, particularly 

 those of Buffon, Blair, and Camper : 4th, on the figure of an embryo 

 of an elephant of Ceylon, described by E. A. W. Zimmermann *. 



With respect to the second point, I have as my proof — 



1st. The elephant of Congo, dissected by Duverney ; its figure maybe 

 seen in the Memoirs to serve for the History of Animals, partiii, and I 

 am quite certain that the ear is not there exaggerated, because it was 

 still preserved for some time at the Museum, and I there saw and 

 •examined it. 



2nd. An ear preserved in the cabinet of the King of Denmark, 

 and taken from an elephant killed at the Cape of Good Hope by Cap- 

 tain Magnus Jaeobi, in 1 675. It is three feet and a half long, and two 

 feet and a half wide t. 



3rd. A young elephant of Africa, which was in our Museum, and is 

 now in that of the University of Leyden ; its ears, though diminished by 

 drying, are still as large as his head. 



4th. An embryo of an elephant of Africa belonging to our Mu- 

 seum %. 



;*)th. All the figures well known to be elephants of Africa. 



From these characters we may satisfy ourselves from what species 

 the figures have been made, of which the origin is not known, or those 

 presented to us by various monuments. 



Thus the elephants, represented on the Roman medals, are almost 

 all of Africa § . 



Gessner's || drawing, copied by Aldrovande %, is that of the African 



* Erlang, 1783, in 4to. 



f Oliger Jacobaeus, Mus. reg. Dan., 1697, fol., p. 3. 



X The King's menagerie how possesses a very fine female African elephant, which 

 confirms the character derived from the size of the ear. — F. C. 

 § Cuper, De Elephantis in nummis obviis, passim. 



II Quadr., p. 377. 



% Ibid., lib. 1, p. 465. 



