ever, is much longer in proportion, ends in a point, is very pliable, serves to collect its food, and deliver it into the mouth; the ears are large, erect, and pointed; the eyes are small and piercing; the skin is naked, rough, knotty, and lying upon the body in folds, after a very peculiar fashion: there are two folds very remarkable; one above his shoulders, and another over the rump: The emperors Antoninus, Heliogabalus, and Gordian, severally exhibited the rhinoceros: and Cosmus expressly speaks of the Ethiopian species as having two horns: there is abundant evidence, therefore, that the ancients possessed a degree of knowledge respecting these animals, of which the moderns were for a long period destitute. The first rhinoceros which was exhibited in Europe after the revival of literature, was a specimen of the one-horned species. It was sent from India to Emmanuel, king of Portugal, in the year 1513. This sovereign made a present of it to the Pope; but the animal being seized during its passage with a fit of tury, occasioned the loss of the vessel in which it was transported. A second rhinoceros was brought to England in 1685; a third was exhibited over almost the whole of Europe in 1739; and a fourth, which was a female, in 1741. That exhibited in 1739 was described and figured by Parsons, in the Philosophical Transactions (vol. xlii. p. 583), who mentioned also that of 1685 and of 1741. A fifth specimen arrived at Versailles in 1771, and it died in 1793 at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six years. The sixth was a very young rhinoceros, which died in this country in the year 1800: some account of its anatomy was published by Mr. Thomas, in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. Lastly, a seventh specimen was living a few years ago in the Garden of Plants at Paris. All these specimens were one-horned, and all from India. So that the two-horned rhinoceros has never been brought alive to modern Europe, and it was long before even an accurate description of it was given by travellers; its existence was known only by specimens of the horns adhering to the skin of the head, which were preserved in different museums. As these specimens were from Africa, and as the first authentic accounts of the living animal of the two-horned species were derived from the histories of African travellers, a general notion prevailed that Asia afforded the one-horned species only, and that the two-horned kind was peculiar to Africa. However, in the year 1793, Mr. William Bell, a surgeon in the service of the East India Company, discovered a species of rhinoceros in the Island of Sumatra, which had also two horns, whose skin, like the African two-horned species, did not exhibit those folds which are so peculiar to the hide of the Indian rhinoceros. This species, how ever, differed from the African rhinoceros in possessing incisive or front teeth, which in the latter are wholly deficient. The Abyssinian traveller Bruce has given a vague indication of a two-horned thinoceros, which exhibits the plaiting of the hide peculiar to the Indian species; and some naturalists have supposed it probable, from the form of the horns, that this may ultimately be found to be a true and distinct species. More recently, again, the accurate and scientific traveller Burchell has announced the existence in the interior of the southern promontory of Africa, of a rhinoceros double the size of the ordinary Cape species, which, like it, has also two horns, and a skin without hairs or folds, but which differs in having the lips and nose thickened, enlarged, and as if flattened. An interesting memoir from the pen of M. Frederic Cuvier, has appeared in the splendid work published by him conjointly with M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, on the animals in the menagerie in the Garden of Plants at Paris. It relates to the rhinoceros lately living in that establishment, and from which the figure was taken which serves to illustrate the present account.-ZOOLOGICAL MAG. "This rhinoceros was but young at the time that the figure was taken; and, contrary to the commonly received opinion, was habitually of a very gentle disposition, obedient to his keeper, and receiving his care and attention with a real affection. However, he would occasionally be seized with fits of fury, during which it was not prudent to come near him. No cause could be assigned for these violent paroxysms: one might say that a blind impulse or desire to regain a state of liberty, (which he had never enjoyed,) excited him to break his chains, and escape from the bondage in which he was retained. Bread and fruits, however, always pacified him; and the claims of hunger always silenced those of liberty; so that this resource against his fury was always kept in reserve. He knew those persons who most indulged him in his gourmandise, and they were received with the liveliest manifestations of affection: the moment he saw them he stretched towards them his long upper lip, opened his mouth, and drew in his tongue. The narrow stall in which he was confined did not allow him to manifest much intelligence; and his keeper took no other pains than to induce him to forget or misconceive his own strength, and to obey: but from the attention which he paid to every thing which was passing around him, and from the readiness with which he distinguished individuals nature, the elephant rarely quits the banks of the river, and often stands in water up to the belly. In a state of servitude, the Indians take equal care to provide a proper supply; they wash it with great address; they give it all the conveniences for lending assistance to itself; they smooth the skin with a pumice stone, and then rub it over with oils, essences, and odours. It is not to be wondered at that an animal furnished with so many various advantages, both of strength, sagacity, and obedience, should be taken into the service of man. We accordingly find that the elephant, from time immemorial, has been employed either for the purposes of labour, of war, or of ostentation; to increase the grandeur of eastern princes, or to extend their dominions. We have hitherto been describing this animal in its natural state; we now come to consider it in a different view, as taken from the forest and reduced to human obedience. We are now to behold this brave harmless creature as learning a lesson from mankind, and instructed by him in all the arts of war, massacre, and devastation. We are now to behold this half reasoning animal led into the field of battle, and wondering at those tumults and that madness which he is compelled to increase. The elephant is a native of Africa and Asia, being found neither in Europe nor America. In Africa he still retains his natural liberty. The savage inhabitants of that part of the world, instead of attempting to subdue this powerful creature to their necessities, are happy in being able to protect themselves from his fury. Formerly, indeed, during the splendour of the Carthaginian empire, elephants were used in their wars; but this was only a transitory gleam of human power in that part of the globe; the natives of Africa have long since degenerated, and the elephant is only known among them from his devastations. However, there are no elephants in the northern parts of Africa at present, there being none found on this side of Mount Atlas. It is beyond the river Senegal that they are to be met with in great numbers, and so down to the Cape of Good Hope, as well as in the heart of the country. In this extensive region they appear to be more numerous than in any other part of the world. But although these animals are most plentiful in Africa, it is only in Asia that the greatest elephants are found, and rendered subservient to human command.* In Africa, the largest do not exceed ten feet high; in Asia they are found from ten to fifteen. Their price increases in proportion to their size; and when they exceed a certain bulk, like jewels, their value then rises as the fancy is pleased to estimate. The largest are entirely kept for the service of princes; and are maintained with the utmost magnificence and at the greatest expense. As the art of war is but very little improved in Asia, there are few princes of the East who do not procure and maintain as many elephants as they are able, and place great confidence on their assistance in an engagement. For this purpose, they are obliged to take them wild in their native forests; and tame them; for the elephant never breeds in a state of servitude. It is one of the most striking peculiarities in this extraordinary creature, that his generative powers totally fail when he comes under the dominion of man; as if he seemed unwilling to propagate a race of slaves to increase the pride of his conqueror. There is, perhaps, no other quadruped that will not breed in its own native climate, if indulged with a moderate share of freedom; and we know, that many of them will copulate in every climate. The elephant alone has never been seen to breed ;(g) and though he has been reduced under the obedience * AFRICAN ELEPHANT.-Since 1681 no African elephant has been seen in Europe, until the young female figured by M. Cuvier, which is now alive in Paris, having been sent as a present by the Pacha of Egypt. Its habits, so far as those of a very young animal can be relied on, exhibit none of the ferocity usually ascribed to it, and are, indeed, fully as mild, intelligent, and tractable as those of the elephant of Asia.—ARCANA OF SCIENCE, 1828. (g) Multis persuasum est Elephantem non brutorum sed hominum more coire. Quod retro mingit non dubitatur. Sed ipse vidi marem hujusce speciei, in nostri regis stabulis super fæmellam itidem inclusam quadrupedum more silientem, pene paululum incurvato, sed sufficienter recto. of man for ages, the duration of pregnancy in the female still remains a secret.* The Indian princes having vainly endeavoured to multiply the breed of elephants, like that of other animals, have been, at last, content to separate the males from the females, to prevent those accesses of desire, which debilitated, without multiplying the species. In order to take them wild in the woods, a spot of ground is fixed upon, which is surrounded with a strong pallisade. This is made of the thickest and the strongest trees; and strengthened by cross bars which give firmness to the whole. The posts are fixed at such distances from each other, that a man can easily pass between them; there being only one great passage left open, through which an elephant can easily come; and which is so contrived as to shut behind, as soon as the beast is entered. To draw him into this inclosure, it is necessary first to find him out in the woods; and a female elephant is conducted along into the heart of the forest, where it is obliged by its keeper to cry out for the male. The male * REPRODUCTION OF THE ELEPHANT.The obscurity which formerly prevailed respecting the mode of reproduction of the elephant has been dissipated in a great measure by the accurate and assiduous observations of our countryman, Mr. Corse. And it is a remarkable instance of the difficulty of eradicating a popular error or prejudice, that notwithstanding the circumstantial evidence and authentic description given by this gentleman relative to the above subject, it is still very generally believed that in a state of subjection the elephant is unalterably barren; and that though it has been reduced under the dominion of man for ages, yet, as if it had a proper sense of its degraded condition, it refuses to increase the pride and power of its conquerors by propagating a race of slaves. This circumstance was adduced by Buffon as one of the most striking instances of the superiority of the elephant, in its moral condition, over other quadrupeds. Mr. Corse, who resided for more than ten years at Tiperah, a province of Bengal, where herds of elephants are taken every season, and who for five years had the Company's elephant hunters entirely under his direction, has completely disproved these assertions. Twice during that period he succeeded in breeding from elephants in a state of captivity and servitude, and observes that this mode of supplying the Indian community with so useful an animal is abandoned only from its being more expensive than the ordinary method by the capture of the wild herds; since the elephants, after being reduced by the process of training, require rest and high feeding to bring them into the requisite condition. In this way was ascertained the precise period of gestation in the elephant, which Mr. Corse states to be twenty months and eighteen days. The young animal when born is 351⁄2 inches high. It soon begins to nibble and suck the breast, pressing it with its trunk to make the milk flow more readily into its mouth while sucking. It has never veen observed to use its proboscis in any other manner during this act, but invariably seized the nipple with the side of its mouth. At this period it is a common practice with the elephant attendants to raise a small mound of earth, about six or eight inches high, for the young one to stand on, and thus to save the mother the trouble of bending her body every time she gives suck; for she has never been observed to lie down for that purpose. The nipples are two in number, and are situated between the fore legs. It is remarkable that the elephant, although having but one young, has by no means a strong affection for it: instances have occured of the mother leaving her offspring and escaping into the woods. If a wild elephant happens to be separated from her young for only two days, though giving suck, she never afterwards recognises or acknowledges it. "I have been much mortified," says Mr. Corse, "at such unnatural conduct, particularly when it was evident the young elephant knew its dam, and by its plaintive cries and submissive approaches solicited her assistance." During the first year the elephant grows eleven inches, and is three feet eleven inches high; in the second he grows eight inches; in the third six; in the fourth year five inches; about the same in the fifth year; in the sixth year three inches and a half; and in the seventh year two inches and a half,-measuring then six feet four inches in height. During the succeeding ten years the growth is comparatively slow. The male is longer in attaining his full growth than the female, seldom having acquired it before his twenty-sixth year.—ZOOLOGICAL MAGA ZINE. + DECOY ELEPHANTS.-The method of decoying elephants is the most singular exhibition of sagacity which occurs in the whole animal kingdom. The Koomkie or female elephant employed becomes an active accessary in a plot against her fellow-creature, discovering not only great readiness, but much ingenuity and anxiety for the suc cess of the enterprise, as well as for the per very readily answers the cry, and hastens to join her; which the keeper perceiving, obliges her to retreat, still repeating the same cry, until she leads the animal into the inclosure already described, which shuts the moment he is entered. Still, however, the female proceeds calling, and inviting, while the male proceeds forward in the inclosure, which grows narrower all the way, and until the poor animal finds himself completely shut up, without the power of either advancing or retreating; the female, in the mean time, being let out by a private way, which she has been previously accustomed to. The wild elephant, upon seeing himself entraped in this manner, instantly attempts to use violence; and, upon seeing the hunters, all his former desires only turn to fury. In the mean time, the hunters, having fixed him with cords, attempt to soften his indignation, by throwing buckets of water upon him in great quantities, rubbing the body with leaves, and pouring oil down his ears. Soon after, two tame elephants are brought, a male and a female, that caress the indignant animal with their trunks; while they still continue pouring water to sonal safety of her keeper. At the season of procreation, domestic animals, and likewise those in a wild state are very fierce and warlike. In the large flocks of elephants, dreadful conflicts take place, terminating in the expulsion of the weaker parties: the master elephant of the herd wages war on the sauns, or single males, who from their equality of stature become objects of jealousy. Full of passion and resentment, many of these destroy every thing within their power, pulling up sugar-canes, plantain-trees, and all in the most wanton manner; then in a sulky state they seek the heavy covers, where time allays their passions, and by degrees they join their own, or some other herd. These single males very soon attract the notice of the dealer, and one or two koomkies are dispatched for the purpose of securing such substantial prizes. Each mohout is provided with a black blanket, and a small quantity of strong rope, proper for securing the saun. Covered with his blankets, the mohout crouches on the back of the koomkie; and if the situation be favourable, both the koomkie and driver furnish themselves with green boughs, which the former carries in her trunk, playing with it in such a manner as to favour the concealment of the latter. A most singular scene now presents itself: the koomkies begin to caress the saun, raising his passions by the most amatory demeanour; during which the mohouts approach, and pass ropes with wonderful dexterity round the fore and hind legs of the saun, which being elated, loses all sense but that of animal enjoyment, and is speedily secured. During the operation, the conduct of the koomkies is peculiarly artful. They not only exert themselves with astonishing address to divert the attention of the saun, and to cut off his view downwards by means of their trunks, but they even aid in effecting the ligatures therewith, passing the rope at times when the mohouts might either be exposed to danger, or unable to reach it. Of the sagacity, wantonness, and cunning of the female elephant, Captain Williamson gives illustration in the following anecdote. "A gentleman bought a female elephant at the sale of a deceased person's effects, not having the least idea that she was a koomkie, which to him would not have been any recommendation, as he was not a dealer in that branch. He resided for a short time at the place of sale, and repeatedly refused handsome offers for his late purchase; to obtain which many persons seemed desirous, but finding him ignorant of her qualifications, all carefully kept secret on the subject, lest a knowledge of them might cause him to overrate an animal that each hoped at some time to obtain. The mohout, or animal's keeper, equally anxious to get out of employment replete with danger, yet desirous of being in the service of the gen tleman, forbore to reveal the value of the elephant to his master. One morning Lutchmee Pearree, which was the elephant's name, was not to be found; for several days no intelligence could be obtained respecting the truant; and in fact she was given over for lost, under the supposition that she had strayed into the neighbouring jungles, and joined with the wild herds: thus no prospect of recovering her. About a week after, Lutchmee made her appearance at her pickets, and being secured, was accoutred," and her master mounted her to take a ride. He happened to proceed to the skirt of a very heavy grass jungle, into which Lutchmee frequently attempted to turn, but was prevented by the mohout, who suspected that she was become wild, and might prove dangerous. At length Lutchmee became quite restive, and in defiance of control dashed into the jungle; nor did she stop, until arriving at a thick patch of trees, to the utter astonishment of her terrified burden, a large male was discovered, round whose fore legs the iron chain with which Lutchmee was ordinarily fastened during the night at her pickets, was turned, so as to secure her prize in the most complete manner!”—ORIENTAL FIELD SPORTS, abridged. |