34 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
Mammals. Lepus (Cases 31 and 32, above) contains about 45 
species, all on the whole very much alike, of which the three 
British species, the Common Hare {Lepus eu?'opaus), the Alpine 
or Varying Hare (L. variahilis) , found both in the Highlands of 
Scotland and in Ireland, and the Rabbit (L. cuniculus) are typical 
examples. Lagomys (Case 32, below) consists only of about 8 
species ; they are short-eared, little animals, known as Pikas or 
Calling-Hares, from the peculiar calling sound they make. They 
resemble Guinea-pigs in their external appearance, and are natives 
of Northern Asia and North America. 
Order VII. UNGULATA, on HOOFED ANIMALS. 
Suborder Proboscidea. 
This Suborder, so named from the long trunk or proboscis into 
which the nose is produced, consists, at the present day, of two 
species only, the African and Indian Elephants. They are the 
survivors of a very large number of species which are now extinct, 
but ranged in former times over the whole of the northern half of 
both the Old and New AVorlds. 
Elephants are heavily-built animals, with large ears, nostrils 
produced into a long flexible trunk, thick limbs, each provided 
with 5 toes, enclosed in a common skin, so that only the nails 
show externally, and of these there are, as a rule, only three 
or four on the hind foot ; tail well developed, reaching nearly 
to the ground ; skin almost naked, although in the extinct 
]\Iam moths it was clothed with long shaggy hair. Incisor teeth 
growing into long curved tusks, directed downwards and forward. 
The two existing species are : — (I) The Indian Elephant {Elephas 
indicus), of rather smaller size than the African, with much smaller 
(‘ars, a back arched ujiwards, with always 4 and sometimes, though 
very rarely, 5 nails on the hind feet, a fingcr-like j)rocess at the 
tij) of the trunk, and with only small tusks in the female. It is an 
inhabitant of the Indian region from India and Ceylon, through 
Burin;di and ^Malacca, to Sumatra. Of this species a rather small 
stuffed specimen is placed in the Saloon at the end of the Gallery, 
and there are several skeletons and skulls in the Ostcological 
Gallery, which will be referred to later on (see p. 86). 
