34 
beautiful of all these, in pattern and shade of coloration, is 
Burchell’s Zebra (.Equus burchelli ), which ranges in large 
herds over the plains north of the Orange river, in Africa. 
It is a curious fact that some horses, especially those of a 
dun color, have indications of the spinal stripe and those on 
the inside of the legs, which are common among the zebras, 
and which resemblance is held to indicate the relationship of 
the horse of the present epoch to some such antecedent form. 
A mouse-dun colored work-horse recently belonging to the 
Society had these stripes plainly marked. 
The zebras are domesticated and tamed to some extent by 
the Boers, or farmers of South Africa. 
The enormous animals which form the family called Pio- 
boscidea , from the peculiar elongation of their nose into a 
proboscis or trunk, are found at the present time in the 
warmer parts of Asia, in the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and 
Ceylon, and also in central and southern Africa. 
There are two species, differing very appreciably,—the 
Indian Elephant (. Elephas indicus ) has a concave forehead, 
comparatively small ears, and has four nails developed on the 
hind feet, while the African Elephant (.Elephas africanus ) 
has a rounder forehead, much larger ears, and has three nails 
on the hind foot instead of four. The incisor teeth, or tusks, 
as they are called, grow to an enormous size, but are rarely 
possessed by the female Indian Elephant. 
The large one in this building is a female from India, and 
is not quite fully grown. The two small ones, “ Dom 
Pedro” and “Empress,” are both Indian, and were placed in 
the Garden in December, 1876, when they were respectively 
about four and five years old. 
The elephant is in reality a much smaller animal than is 
commonly supposed, careful measurements of large numbers, 
in India, showing that they average about nine feet in height 
at the shoulder, and rarely exceed ten. The ordinary life of 
the elephant is supposed to be about a hundred years, although 
in special cases they undoubtedly live much longer. 
It is given, on the authority of Sir Emerson Tennent, that 
the British, after their capture of the Island of Ceylon, in 
1799, h a d i n their service an elephant which was proved by 
the records to have served the Dutch during the whole term 
of their occupancy,—something like a hundred and forty 
years. 
