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THE TOWER MENAGERIE 
archipelago. The African elephant has a retreating 
forehead which contrasts with the wise and bulbous 
forehead of the Indian beast furrowed in the middle. 
The trunk has two finger-like tips at the end. The 
ears are enormous and flap back over the shoulders. 
The Indian elephant is really, relatively speaking, 
of course, asmall-eared elephant. Within its extremely 
thick skull lies concealed a brain, which is reputed 
in the elephant tribe to be particularly effective as a 
brain. As a matter of fact elephant. stories have 
suffered both from exaggeration and inaccuracy. It 
is always tempting to read into the actions of an animal 
purely human motives. Revenge seems to be as sweet 
to elephants as to women, and tales are told of the 
nursing of wrath through long periods. Judged by 
the numerous specimens at the Zoo, the intelligence of 
the elephant does not appear to be much superior to 
that of many other beasts. Ungulates generally are not 
remarkable for brain power, and all that is done by an 
elephant in obedience to the mahout is also done by 
trained horses at a circus. As to longevity, that too 
has been exaggerated vastly. Probably after all 
Aristotle was not far out when he assigned 200 years 
as the utmost limit. Long before the Zoo existed, in 
fact so far back as 1257, an elephant was exhibited in 
the Tower Menagerie, a royal foundation which as will 
be seen antedated the Zoo by some centuries. The 
Zoological Society possess in their house in Hanover 
Square a quaint cut of an elephant exhibited in the 
sixteen hundreds. The elephants at the Zoo are, as is 
well known, used for riding purposes. Their gait under 
those circumstances is not fast, neither can the elephant 
ever go at a really fast pace. It has shuffling move- 
ment which is incompatible with swiftness. 
