At once the mightiest and most majestic of all terrestrial mammals, the elephant appeals to the imagination more forcibly than any other living animal, not only on account of its great sagacity and the strangeness and singularity of its outward appearance, but also because it is such an obvious link between the world of today and the dim and distant past of Pleiocene and Miocene times.
There are two existing species of elephant, the AFRICAN and the ASIATIC, the latter, from the structure of its molar teeth and the shape of its skull, appearing to be very nearly related to the MAMMOTH, which lived upon the earth in comparatively recent times- geologically speaking- and was undoubtedly contemporary with man in Europe during the Stone Age.
There are very considerable differences both in the external appearance and also in the habits of the two existing forms of elephant. In the African species the forehead is more convex and the eye relatively larger that in its Asiatic cousin; and whilst the ears of the latter are only of moderate size, those of the former are so large that they at once arrest attention, and are one of hat animal's most remarkable external characteristics. Both sexes of the African species, with few exceptions, carry well-developed tusks, but in the Asiatic form the tusks of the females are so small as scarcely to protrude beyond the jaws. In Asia, too, tuskless bull elephants are common, whilst males of the African species has but three nails on the hind foot, the Asiatic elephant four. In the African species the middle of the back is hollowed, the shoulder being the highest point, whilst in the Asiatic elephant the back is arched, and the top of the shoulder lower than the highest part of the back. The extremity of the proboscis is also different in the two species, the African elephant being furnished with two nearly equal-sized prolongations, the one on the front, the other on the hinder margin, with which small objects can be grasped as with the finger and thumb of the human hand, whilst in the Asiatic species the finger-like process on the upper margin of the end o the trunk is considerably longer than that on the under-side. In external appearance the skin of the African elephant is darker in color and rougher in texture than that of the Asiatic form. The molar teeth of the former animal are, too, of much coarser construction, with fewer and larger plates and thicker enamel than in the latter, which would naturally lead one to suppose that the African elephant is accustomed to eat coarser, harder food than the Asiatic species. The supposition is born out by fact; for whilst the Asiatic elephant feeds mainly upon grass, the leaves and fruit of the wild plantain, and the young shoots of the bamboo, together with the leaves, twigs, and bark of certain trees, the African species never eats grass, and, although very fond of certain kinds of sift and succulent food, such as wild fruits and the inner bark of certain trees, is constantly engaged in chewing up the roots and branches of trees as thick as a man's wrist for the sake of the sap and bark, the woody portions being rejected after having been reduced to pulp. The Asiatic elephant appears to be far less tolerant of exposure to the heat of the sun than the African; and whilst the latter may often be found standing at rest or sleeping throughout the hottest hours of the day in long grass or scrubby brush of a height not sufficient to afford any protection from the sun to the whole of the upper portion of the head and body, the former, when in a wild state, is said to always seek the shade of the densest forests it can during hot weather.
The Asiatic elephant often lies down when resting and sleeping. This is in marked contrast to the African species, which, if it ever does lie down at all, except to roll in mud or rub itself against an ant-heap, can only do so very rarely, since in all my experience, though I have seen some thousands of African elephants standing sleeping during the heat of the day, i have never yet seen one of these animals lying down, nor found the impress in the ground where one had been so lying.
When excited and charging, both species of elephant raise their heads and cock their ears, which in the African animal stand out at such a time like two sails, and, being each upwards of 3 1/2 feet in breadth, cover, together with the animal's head, an expanse of fully 10 feet. The Asiatic elephant is said to remain mute whilst charging, and to hold its trunk tightly curled up between its tusks. The African elephant, on the other hand, usually accompanies a charge with a constant succession of short, sharp trumpeting screams. Sometimes, though rarely never, however, animals of this species remain mute whilst charging, but they never, I believe, coil their trunks up under their throats. often an African elephant will swing round for a charge with a loud scream and trunk and holds it pointing straight down in from of its chest.
