68 



GREAT GAME ANIMALS. 



rocky or stony places, where they dwell either in holes beneath the 

 rocks, or in the crevices between them. They feed chiefly on 

 leaves and young twigs ; and are usually only to be seen abroad in 

 the early morning and in the evening. The Syrian species (fig. 49) 

 is the animal called " Coney" (= Rabbit) in the English version 

 of the Bible. Examples of several species are exhibited in the 

 case (Nos. 983-990). 



Suborder PROBOSCIUEA. 



Since the great majority of the members of this, the last, 

 subordinal group of Ungulates are extinct, it has been deemed 

 advisable to exhibit the mounted specimens, skeletons, tusks, and 

 teeth of its two existing representatives — the Asiatic Elephant 

 (Elephas maximus) and the African Elephant (E. africanus) — in 

 the neighbourhood of or alongside the remains of their fossil 

 cousins and ancestors. 



Fig. 50. 



Skull ot the African Elephant {Elephas africanus). 



In modern Elephants the feet are short, broad and massive, and 

 unlike those of any other existing Ungulates. They have, for 

 instance, five toes, all encased in a common skin, with a flat 

 truncated sole ; externally the only indications of the toes are the 

 broad oval nails, or hoofs, arranged in a semicircle round the front 

 edge of the sole. The teeth comprise a pair of huge tusks, or 

 incisors, in the upper jaw (fig. 50), which grow uninterruptedly 

 throughout life, and large transversely ridged molars (fig. 52), of 

 which only one or two portions of two on each side of each jaw are 

 in use at the same time; six pairs of these teeth being, however, 



[Central 

 Hall and 

 Fossil 

 Mammal 

 Gallery.] 



