ELEPHANTS 
733 
apart and are roughly an inch or two in length, but on 
certain parts of the body they grow much more numerously 
and form a definite hair covering. Bordering the ear open¬ 
ing there is such an area forming a conspicuous fringe of 
buffy or whitish hair in the shape of a band one or two 
inches wide and several inches in length. The hair through¬ 
out the body generally, however, is black and quite unlike 
the fringe near the ear opening in color. The lips are mar¬ 
gined by a scanty growth of long black hair which is most 
abundant at the angle of the mouth. The eyelashes are 
formed of long black hair and are quite conspicuous. The 
trunk is armed at its tip and also at intervals along the sides 
by stiff, bristle-like tufts of hair somewhat in character like 
the tail hair, but quite short and bristle-like. The really 
only conspicuous growth of hair possessed by the elephant 
is the black tuft at the tip of the tail. It is composed of 
exceedingly stiff, wire-like hair the diameter of which repre¬ 
sents the maximum of hair growth among mammals. The 
hairs, which are individually some 15 to 30 inches in length, 
are confined to the edges of the flattened or compressed tip, 
and project out as a thin mane at right angles to the flattened 
surface. The tail hairs are individually very few in num¬ 
ber and cover a much greater extent on the lower surface 
of the tail, where they extend along the margin some 8 
inches, while above they occupy only half that distance or 
the terminal 4 inches of the tail. The flattened tip of the 
tail and the manner in which the hair projects from it in 
the same plane as the compressed surface are closely similar 
to the arrangement in the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, 
both thick-skinned animals but quite unrelated to the 
elephant. 
The hoof-like divisions on the margin of the foot in East 
African elephants are four on the front foot and three on 
the hind, but usually there is some indication in the form 
of a slight knob of the fifth on the forefoot and the fourth 
on the hind. The Indian elephant possesses these addi¬ 
tional hoof or nail indications as well marked as the other 
nails, and the West African race, cyclotis , is also said to 
have them. The internal or bony structure of the toes, 
however, shows five to each foot in the East African, which 
does not differ in this respect from the Indian, and it is 
