CHAPTER II.. Habits When Wild.

HABITS WHEN WILD.

Water, but not heat, essential to elephants 25

Sight limited 26

Caution 26

Smell acute 27

Hearing good ib.

Cries of the elephant 27

Trumpeting 28

Booming noise 29

Height, exaggerated 30

Facility of stealthy motion 31

Ancient delusion as to the joints of the leg 32

Its exposure by Sir Thos. Browne ib.

Its perpetuation by poets and others 35

Position of the elephant in sleep 38

An elephant killed on its feet 39

Mode of lying down 40

Its gait a shuffle ib.

Power of climbing mountains 41

Facilitated by the joint of the knee 43

Mode of descending declivities, note ib.

A “herd” is a family 45

Attachment to their young 46

Suckled indifferently by the females ib.

A “rogue” elephant 47

Their cunning and vice 48

Injuries done by them 49

The leader of a herd a tusker 50

Bathing and nocturnal gambols, description of a scene by Major Skinner 51

Method of swimming 55

Internal anatomy imperfectly known 56

Faculty of storing water 58

Peculiarity of the stomach 59

The food of the elephant 63

Sagacity in search of it 64

Unexplained dread of fences 65

Its spirit of inquisitiveness 67

Anecdotes illustrative of its curiosity ib.

Estimate of sagacity 68

Singular conduct of a herd during thunder ib.

An elephant feigning death 70

Appendix.—Narratives of natives, as to encounters with rogue elephants 71