720 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
Africa the Roosevelt safari visited the elephants praqtically 
never lie down at all; that is, the cases where they do are so 
wholly exceptional that they can be disregarded. We heard 
of such instances from the ’Ndorobo or Wakamba hunters, 
or from old white elephant hunters, but always as some¬ 
thing curious and unusual. In carefully following various 
herds and individuals, carefully examining the trails they 
had made during the preceding twenty-four or even forty- 
eight hours, we never came across an instance where any 
elephant had lain down. They slept and rested standing. 
But in the desert, north of the Northern Guaso Nyiro, 
Heller found them lying down. Whether the cows ever 
calve without leaving the herd we cannot say; in the only 
case brought to our attention of the site of a calf’s birth 
being found, the cow had retired to an isolated place, 
where she had evidently spent the first two or three days 
after the calf was born before rejoining the herd. 
By the time the calf is a week old, the mother has joined 
the herd, usually composed of other nursing or expectant 
mothers and of half-grown animals of both sexes. The cow 
takes the utmost care of the calf; if it is drinking at a pool 
she will chase away any other member of the herd which she 
thinks may interfere with it. The cows guard the calves 
against the attacks of wild beasts. In extremely rare cases 
three-parts grown elephant cows or half-grown bulls have 
been attacked by parties of hungry lions; but, as a rule, an 
animal is safe after it is three or four years old. Young 
calves, however, are eagerly sought after by lions and even 
by leopards and hyenas. The cows are always on the alert 
against such foes, and drive them away in a twinkling if 
they are discovered, uniting in the rush against them, just 
