A CHAT ABOUT INDIAN WILD BEASTS. 167 
eye and ear—commonly called the temple—is less marked. 
The countenance is more pleasing, the eye brighter and kinder 
looking. 
The Muchnas—called by the Burmese “ Hines”—has the 
head much longer and narrower, the temple very much depressed. 
The trunk is longer and very ponderous, possessing immense 
strength, as if to compensate the animals for the want of the 
formidable tusks possessed by the Goondas. 
| If nature has not given intellect to these animals, it has given 
them an instinct next thing to it. One has only to hunt them in 
their wilds to learn how wonderfully Providence has taught them 
to choose the most favourable ground, whether for feeding or 
encamping, and to resort to jungles where their ponderous bodies 
so resemble rocks or the dark foliage that it is most difficult for 
the sportsman to distinguish them from surrounding objects; 
whilst their feet are so made that not only can they tramp over 
any kind of ground, hard or soft, thorny or smooth, but without 
emitting a sound. The Indian Elephants prefer forests by day 
and open ground by night, and feed on bamboos, wild cardamoms, 
plantains, null, branches (leaves) of trees, especially of the Ficus 
tribe, or long grass, which is abundant on all the plains. They 
are very fond of hiding in a wood in the vicinity of cultivation 
during the day, and sallying forth to plunder at night. They do 
a great deal of damage, not only in what they eat, but more in 
what they trample down and destroy. Elephants are at all times 
a wandering race; they consume so much and waste so much 
more, that no single forest could long support them, hence their 
roving propensities. 
Whilst the European sportsman in India oe only for the 
‘brain of an Elephant, natives often kill them by firing at the 
point of the shoulder. Elephants have a very keen sense of 
smell and of hearing, and they must be approached up wind. In 
the dry season there are so many fallen twigs and dry leaves that 
it is almost impossible to come close enough to a herd to kill 
one; the slightest noise, and off they go! But after the jungles 
have been burnt and rain has fallen, especially when they are 
feeding on bamboos, they are easier to get at. Colonel McMaster, 
an excellent sportsman and naturalist, says of Elephants :— 
“Those who only think of Elephants as they have seen these 
