1220 ON THE FOSSIL BOXES OK PAC II YDKKMATOIS QUADltUI'EDS . 



7th. The hind-foot of the elephant of Africa is distinguished from 

 that of India • 1 st, in this, that the tibial surface of its astragalus is more 

 oblique ; 2nd, the peroneal surface of its os calcis is broader ; 3rd, its 

 first cuneiform bone is smaller, resting much less on the metatarsal 

 bone of the second toe; 4th, the only bone, which represents the big toe, 

 smaller and more pointed ; 5th, the metatarsal bone of the second toe 

 much thinner in proportion. (See pi. 8, fig, 0", the foot of the Indian ; 

 and, fig. 7, that of the African.) These differences accord, as those 

 of the fore foot, with those which we shall presently remark in the 

 number of the nails. 



6. — Differences taken from the Nails. 



We know that there has been for a long time some uncertainty 

 among naturalists, regarding the number of the nails of the elephant, 

 and that some have thought that it is subject to vary. 



It may so happen that a nail falls off by accident ; it has even hap- 

 pened sometimes that excrescences on the sole of the foot have been 

 taken for nails : but, nevertheless, there must be a natural number, 

 which circumstances alone can alter. 



I think I have found that this number is not the same in the elephant 

 of Asia and in that of Africa ; and if my conjecture is correct, this 

 will be a third external character to be added to those already fur- 

 nished by the form of the head and the size of the ears. 



What my conjecture is founded on, is this : 



All the elephants of India, carefully examined, are found to have 

 five nails before and four behind. 



This is the case with the elephant modelled at Naples, and repre- 

 sented by Buffon, torn. xi. ; with the elephant which died at the me- 

 nagerie of Versailles, and was dissected by Mertrud ; with that which 

 died at Cassel, and of which Zimmerman speaks ; of the foetus in the 

 cabinet at Brunswick, described by this latter ; of that represented 

 by Seba ; lastly, of the young elephant described by Camper. 



The three Indian elephants of our menagerie had also this number. 



M. Corse says that it is regarded in India as one of the marks of a 

 perfect elephant. 



In truth, Blair says of his own, " Each shod icith four hoofs ;" but 

 he also gives in his drawing five toes to the left fore-foot, and four to 

 those of the hind. 



I have had but two African elephants to examine on this point — a 

 young one stuffed, and a foetus, of which the first is at present in the 

 Leyden cabinet, and the other has remained with us. Their feet, 

 particularly those of the latter, were not altered, and presented dis- 

 tinctly, those before four nails, and those behind three. 



Perrault, the only naturalist who has given a good description of an 

 adult African elephant, gives but three nails to all the feet ; but it 

 might be very possible that the monstrous excrescences which his 

 animal had on all the soles, had masked a nail on the fore feet*. 



* The elephant of Asia, and that of Africa, at present in the menagerie, present, 

 the first, five nails on the fore feet, and on those behind, and the second, four nails 

 on the foic feet, and three on the hind.— F. C. 



