A troupe of itinerant performers, with monkeys (one riding on a dog)
Two monkeys, adult patting juvenile on head
Macacus Radiatus.Desm.
Cynocephalus Porcarius.Desm.
The Monkey which occupies the left hand in the present cut forms part of the same group with the subjects noticed at the end of the preceding article, from which it is distinguished by the peculiar manner in which the hair of the upper part of its head diverges, and, as it were, radiates horizontally, from a central point towards an imaginary circumference, assuming a form not unlike the object to which it is usually compared, the round bonnet of a Chinese. Its forehead is also more flattened, its superciliary crests less developed, and its muzzleconsiderably lengthened and laterally compressed. The length of its body is from twelve to fifteen inches, and its tail when entire measures quite as much. The forehead, which is strongly wrinkled, is nearly naked, and the whole of the face is entirely destitute of hair. That of the upper parts of the body is of a uniform yellowish gray, the under surface deriving a bluish tinge from the skin, which is but thinly covered. Its native country is the east of Asia.
The right hand figure represents the Chacma, or Pig-faced Monkey, one of the true Baboons, whose generic characters will be found in the succeeding article. The forehead of this species is remarkably depressed, and the nose much prolonged. Its general colour is dusky, approaching to black. Its body measures from two to three feet in length; but the tail is short, and does not reach the ground when the animal stands upon all fours. It is a native of Africa, and was formerly very troublesome in the neighbourhood of the Cape.
Both these animals, although lively and tolerably good humoured when young, become mischievous in their dispositions and disgusting in their habits as they advance in age. The voice of the latter closely resembles the bark of a dog.
A group of monkeys
Two baboons
Cynocephalus Papio.Desm.
In the true Baboons the facial angle of the adult varies from 30° to 35°, and the superciliary crests are for the most part considerably elevated, as is also the ridge on the back of the head formed by the attachment of the temporal muscles, which, as well as the canine teeth, are large and powerful. The cheeks are furnished with pouches capable of much distension; and the muzzle terminates in a flattened extremity like that of the dog, on which the openings of the nostrils are situated. The tail is generally as long as, and sometimes even longer than, the body; but in several of the species it is extremely short. The callosities are frequently of largesize and disgustingly conspicuous. This genus is generally considered as the lowest in organization, and consequently in capacity and intelligence, of the tribe to which it belongs.
The colour of the common Baboon is reddish brown; his face and hands are black, and his upper eyelids white. The hair of his cheeks forms a considerable tuft on each side; and the under surface of his body is but sparingly covered. In bulk he is equal to a middle sized dog; his proportions are thickset and inelegant; but he is by no means dull or inactive. When young, he is gay, playful, and docile; but as he grows older he becomes untractable, malicious, and ferocious. He is sometimes even dangerous, his muscular strength and agility, together with the great power of his teeth and jaws, rendering him a formidable opponent. On this account it is absolutely necessary to keep him strictly confined. He is a native of Africa, and more especially of the tropical parts of its western coast.
A man, dressed in the style of a Cavalier, surrounded by a group of baboons. I have no idea what is going on here.
Two mongooses. Mongeese. Whatever.
Lemur Albifrons.Geoff.
Belonging to a different tribe of the same grand division with the true Monkeys, from which they are more readily distinguished by their general form and habit than by any very remarkable deviation in their structure or organization, these agile and playful little creatures form a group which naturally follows in immediate succession. The technical peculiarities on which their separation from the Monkeys is founded are usually deduced from their teeth and nails; but other and more obvious characteristics are afforded by the form of their heads, of their tails, and of their hinder extremities, and these assist in confirming a distinction which mightotherwise be regarded as arbitrary and unnecessary. The teeth of the Lemurs are, like those of man and of the Monkeys of the Old World, thirty-two in number, and consist of four incisors, two canines, and ten molars in the upper jaw, and of six incisors, two canines, and eight molars in the lower. Such at least is the usual statement with respect to their dentition; but M. Geoffroy maintains, on the other hand, that the number of incisors is equal in both jaws, and coincides with that of the Monkeys; the two outermost of the six, which are larger than the rest, being in his opinion the true canines; while the canines, commonly so called, are in fact only the first of the series of molars. This conjecture unquestionably derives considerable strength from the fact that, when the animal closes its mouth, the supposed canines of the lower jaw pass behind those of the upper, a position directly contrary to that which they uniformly assume in every other animal that is furnished with that kind of teeth. On each of their four hands they have four fingers of moderate length, and a thumb which is capable of being opposed to them almost equally well with that of the other Quadrumana; they are consequently enabled to grasp whatever they seize with the greatest precision. The peculiarity of their nails consists in the shape of that of the index of the hinder hands, which forms an elongated, curved, and pointed claw, approaching in some degree to those of the carnivorous quadrupeds. All the rest of their nails are broad and flat like those of the Monkeys. Their posterior extremities are longer than their anterior; and their body and limbs are light, graceful, and well proportioned. The tail, which is of uniform thicknessthroughout, is longer than the body, and, in common with it, is clothed with long, soft, and woolly hair. The head is long, triangular, and gradually tapering into a slender and pointed muzzle, which, in proportionate length, far exceeds that of any of the Monkeys; the ears are short and rounded; and the whiskers but little developed.
The whole of the genus thus characterized are natives of Madagascar and of two or three of the smaller islands in its immediate vicinity. They appear to occupy in that remarkable and very imperfectly known country the place of the Monkeys, none of which have yet been detected within its precincts. They are said to live in numerous troops upon the trees, and to feed upon fruits and insects; but their habits in a state of nature have not yet been observed with sufficient accuracy to enable us to form any clear idea of their mode of existence. In captivity they are particularly tame and good tempered, fond of being noticed, delighting in motion, and climbing and leaping with surprising agility. They are, however, in some degree nocturnal; and when undisturbed pass a considerable portion of the day in sleep. If alone, they roll themselves up in the form of a ball, and wind their long tail in a very curious manner round their body, apparently for the purpose of keeping themselves warm; for they are naturally chilly, and delight in basking in the rays of the sun, or in creeping as close as possible to the fire. When two of them are confined together, they interlace their limbs and tails after a singular fashion, and placing their heads in such a position as that each may, if disturbed, see what is going on behind the other’s back, fall comfortably asleep.
The species to which the beautiful pair in the Menagerie belong has all the habits of its group. It is characterized by the clear fulvous brown colour of the upper surface of the body and outer side of the limbs, gradually becoming lighter on the under and inner surfaces, and deepening in its shade towards the tail, the greater part of which is nearly black. The muzzle and the hands are bluish black. The male has the whole of the forehead, the sides of the cheeks, and the under part of the lower lip covered with a white fur, which in the female is of a blackish gray and much less developed; her general colour is also of a lighter tinge. This remarkable difference would lead us to question the specific identity of the two animals, were we not assured by M. F. Cuvier that he had verified the fact by what is usually regarded as an unequivocal test. Mr. M’Leay has, however, thrown considerable doubt upon the accuracy of the inference thus attempted to be drawn, by exhibiting to the Linnean Society a female, in whom the white fur of the head was as distinctly developed as in her male companion. The whole of the species of this group require, in fact, an accurate revision.
Mongoos curled up in a nest of branches
Two kangaroos, or kanguroos
Macropus Major.Shaw.
The very peculiar structure from which the Marsupial animals derive their name has been regarded by almost every naturalist who has written on the subject as so essential a deviation from the common type, that, setting aside all considerations of form or habits, and regardless even of those technical characters on which so much reliance is usually placed, they have for the most part agreed in uniting under the same family designation every animal in which it occurred. This peculiarity consists in a folding or doubling of the skin and its appendages beneath the lower part of the belly in the females, in such a manner as to form an open pouch orbag, in which the young are contained from a very early period, in which the process of suckling takes place, and in which, even for some time after they have acquired sufficient size and strength to leave it, the little ones continue to take refuge.
But the presence of this one anomalous characteristic is accompanied by so many striking discrepancies in other parts, that, limited as this tribe is in number, most of the principal forms of Mammalia find analogous representations among its groups. Thus the Opossums exhibit characters in some measure intermediate between the Quadrumana and the Carnivora, to which latter the Dasyuri, another Marsupial group, closely resembling the Civets in form and habits, approach very nearly; while the herbivorous races of the tribe might occupy a station between the Rodent and Ruminant Orders, with each of which they exhibit various degrees of relationship. This want of uniformity in the essential parts of their organization necessarily gives rise to much difficulty in determining their position in the system. The mode of classification now most generally followed is perhaps, under all the circumstances, the best that could at the present moment be adopted; although it must be owned that the purely herbivorous species arrange themselves with a very ill grace under a subdivision of the order Carnivora. Placed, however, as they are at the end of that order, and immediately before the Rodentia, the regular gradations from the type of the former to that of the latter, which occur in their different groups, become most distinctly manifest.
With the exception of the Opossums, which are natives of America, the tribe is peculiar to New Holland and itsappendages, and to some of the islands which form the great chain of connexion between that insular continent and South-eastern Asia. The former is, however, their head quarters, and the species which are found beyond its limits are few in number compared with those which people its territory, and, what is more remarkable, people it to the exclusion of nearly all the other Mammalia; the dog alone, the universal concomitant of man, and one or two species of rats, disputing with them their title to its exclusive possession; for those paradoxical creatures, the Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, if really mammiferous, approximate closely in structure to the Marsupial tribe.
The largest of these animals are the Kanguroos, whose generic characters we shall now proceed to describe. Their teeth are only of two kinds, the canines being altogether wanting. The incisors are six in the upper jaw, and two only in the lower; the former short, and arranged in a curved line, and the latter long, pointed, closely applied to each other, and directed forwards. The molars are separated from the incisors by a considerable vacant space, and are five in number on each side of each jaw. The most remarkable peculiarity in the external form of these animals consists in the extreme disproportion of their limbs, the anterior legs being short and weak, while the posterior are extremely long and muscular. The tail too is excessively thick at its base, of considerable length, and gradually tapering; and this singular conformation enables it to act in some measure as a supplemental leg, when the animal assumes an erect or nearly erect posture, in which position he is supported as it were on a tripod by the joint action ofthese three powerful organs. By means of this combination they will, when flying from danger, take a succession of leaps of from twenty to thirty feet in length and six or eight in height; but even in their more quiet and gradual mode of progression they also make use of their tail in conjunction with their four extremities. The fore feet are furnished with five toes, each terminating in a moderately strong and arcuated claw. The hinder extremities, on the contrary, have only four toes, the two interior of which are united together so as to form the appearance of a single one furnished with two short and feeble claws; the third is long, of great strength, and terminated by a large and powerful claw having the form of a lengthened hoof; and the fourth, the most external of the series, is similar in character to the third, but of much smaller dimensions. The head and anterior part are small and delicate, and appear quite disproportioned to the robust posterior half of the body; and this disproportion is equally striking, whether the animal assumes an erect position or crouches forwards upon all fours. In either case the whole extent of the soles of the posterior feet, which are of great length, is applied to the surface of the ground. Although differing from all the Rodent animals in the number of the cutting teeth of the upper jaw, the Kanguroo has the deep fissure in the upper lip, with which nearly all that order are furnished, and of which the hare offers a familiar and proverbial instance.
These singular animals were among the first fruits which accrued to natural history from the discovery of New South Wales, a country which has since proved so fertile in new and remarkable forms both of the animaland vegetable creations. Their natural habits in a wild state are still, however, very imperfectly known. They appear to live in small herds, perhaps single families, which are said to submit to the guidance of the older males, and to inhabit in preference the neighbourhood of woods and thickets. They are, as might be inferred from the small size of their mouths and the peculiar character of their teeth, purely herbivorous, feeding chiefly upon grass and roots. Their flesh is eaten by the colonists, by whom it is said to be nutritious and savoury, an assertion which is confirmed by those who have partaken of it in England. In order to procure this they are frequently hunted in their native country; but the dogs who are employed in this service sometimes meet with dangerous wounds, not only from the blows of their powerful tail, which is their usual weapon of defence, but also from the claws of their hind feet, with which they have been known to lacerate the bodies of their assailants in a shocking manner. But, unless when thus driven to make use of such powers of self-defence as they possess, they are perfectly harmless and even timid; and, when domesticated, are not in the least mischievous. In several collections in this country, and particularly in the Royal Park at Windsor, from which the specimens in the Menagerie were obtained, they have become almost naturalized, and appear to be but little affected by the change of climate. When confined in a small enclosure, they uniformly make their path round its circuit, seldom crossing it or passing in any other direction except for the purpose of procuring their food. Their whole appearance, and especially their mode of progression, is singularly curious and even to a certain extent ludicrous.
Modern naturalists have attempted to distinguish several species among the Kanguroos; but as the characters on which these are founded consist merely in difference of size and slight modifications of colour, a much more complete acquaintance with them than we yet possess is requisite before they can safely be adopted. Our specimens are of a brownish gray above, somewhat lighter beneath, with the extremity of the muzzle, the back of the ear, the feet, and the upper surface of the tail, nearly black, and the front of the throat grayish white. Since they have been confined in the Menagerie, the female has once produced young; a circumstance by no means unfrequent even in this country among those which are less restricted of their liberty and are suffered to roam at large in a meadow or a park. They are fed, like the domesticated Ruminants, upon green herbage and hay; and are extremely tame and good tempered.
A rural, riverside or lakeside scene
Porcupine
Hystrix Cristata.Linn.
Although the Rodent order, next to the Carnivorous, is the most numerous in species, the Porcupine is the only animal belonging to it which is at present contained in the Menagerie. The animals of this division, consisting chiefly of “rats and mice and such small deer,” have indeed, with some few exceptions, so little of interest for the mere casual visiter of an exhibition, that it is rarely that they are sought after unless by the scientific collector. They are at once distinguished from the Carnivora by the total absence of canine teeth; and have uniformly two incisors in each jaw, projecting forwards and generally of considerable size, separated from a variable number of grinders by a vacant space.
From the other animals of the order the Porcupinesare so readily distinguished by the long and pointed spines with which their body is armed, that it is unnecessary to dwell on their generic characters. The common Porcupine, when fully grown, as in the remarkably fine specimen figured over leaf, measures more than two feet from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail. The spines, which are supported by a slender pedicel, thickly clothe the upper and posterior parts of the body, the largest being more than a foot in length; they are regularly surrounded by alternate rings of black and white. The head and neck are crested with long, bristly, black hairs, forming a kind of mane, and all the rest of the body is covered with short black hair.
The Porcupine is a native of Africa and the south of Europe; he chooses for his abode the most arid and solitary situations, and passes the daytime secluded in the burrows which he digs for his habitation, quitting them only at night to provide his subsistence, which consists entirely of vegetable substances. He is a remarkably timid animal, and never makes use of his formidable weapons except in self-defence; if alarmed, his spines immediately become erected, and woe be to the enemy who should dare to attack him open-mouthed when in that posture.
Something... exploding? Like a porcupine?
Elephant
Elephas Indicus.Cuv.
The opportune arrival of a beautiful little Elephant, an animal which has for some time been a desideratum to the Menagerie, fortunately enables us to add to our list of subjects that which in all probability presents the most generally attractive spectacle among the whole class of Mammiferous Quadrupeds. The strong and peculiar interest which the Elephant possesses above all other beasts arises in fact not so much from his gigantic bulk and immense muscular power, as from the high opinion usually entertained of those intellectual qualities with which he has long been supposed to be preeminently endowed, and which have rendered him atheme of exaggerated encomium to the careless observer, while even in some philosophic minds they have furnished the groundwork on which perverted ingenuity has built up theory after theory as baseless and imaginary as the foundation on which they have been made to rest, the reason and reflection of a brute.
It is on this account that we feel it incumbent upon us, notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, to dwell with some little detail on the natural history of this singular animal; but we shall nevertheless endeavour to compress our observations within the smallest possible compass. We shall commence as usual with his zoological characters, and shall then take a glance at his habits, such as they appear in a pure state of nature, unfettered by any laws but those of necessity, and uncontrolled except by the inevitable influence of the circumstances in which he is placed. And lastly we shall view him when under the control of man, and reduced to that half-domesticated condition to which even his stubborn nature is bowed by the application of those means which man alone can employ, and by which he maintains his ascendancy as undisputed lord of the creation over the mightiest even more effectually than over the meanest of its works.
The Elephants belong to the Pachydermatous order, in which they constitute a family readily distinguishable from the other enormous beasts which form part of it, the Hippopotamus and the Rhinoceros, by a combination of characters of the most remarkable description. To the immense size and clumsy figure of the two last named animals, which indeed they commonly surpass in both those particulars, they add the following distinctivezoological characters. Their teeth consist of two formidable tusks, which, occupying the place of the incisors of the upper jaw, project forwards in a nearly horizontal direction, generally with a slight curvature upwards; and of one or occasionally two cheek teeth of considerable magnitude on each side of each jaw, formed of vertical layers of bony matter surrounded by enamel, and connected together by a third substance called cortical. These latter are not, as in almost all the other Mammalia, renewed for one only time and at a certain age by the growth of others to supply their places from the cavity of the jaw beneath them; but, on the contrary, are pushed forwards by the advance of those which are destined to replace them from behind, and are renewed, according to the statement of Mr. Corse, no less than eight times at different periods of the animal’s existence. On each successive change the number of laminæ of which they are composed is increased, the earliest not offering more than four, while the later ones frequently exceed twenty; and it is in consequence of the new teeth generally making their appearance for some time prior to the total failure of their predecessors that their number occasionally appears to be double its proper and more usual amount. The tusks on the contrary admit but of a single displacement and renewal; the first or milk pair seldom exceeding two inches in length, and falling out between the first and second year. The permanent ones which succeed are much larger and more powerful in the adult male than in the female, and not unfrequently project as much as two feet. They are well known as furnishing one of the most beautiful and ornamental productions which the animal kingdomaffords, as well as a valuable article of commerce, in the pure and polished ivory of which they are formed. They have been known to weigh as much as one hundred and fifty pounds, but their usual average is from fifty to seventy.
The ears of the Elephant are large, not elevated like those of other quadrupeds so as to form a kind of trumpet for the reception of sound, but flattened down upon the side of the head, and forming a broad and uninterruptedly expanded surface. His eyes, remarkably small in proportion to his bulk, are sheltered above by a cluster of long hairs, which, with a few others scattered over the head and still more rarely on the body, and a kind of brush at the extremity of the tail, constitute the only covering, if covering it may be called, with which he is provided. His skin in fact is throughout nearly destitute of hair; but in return it is, as in the rest of the order, of excessive thickness and extreme tenacity, insomuch as to be capable of repelling a common musket ball, which scarcely makes the slightest impression upon its surface. His feet are enveloped by a large hoof of a callous and almost horny consistence, and are divided, in the skeleton at least, into five toes, the extremities only of which, rendered obvious by the nails by which they are surmounted, are externally visible. On the hind feet the number of apparent toes varies from three to four.
But of all the peculiarities by which the Elephant is distinguished, the most singular and at the same time the most useful is the projection which is formed by the blending and extension of the nose and upper lip into an elongated and tapering tube, considerably longer thanthe head, and truncated at the extremity, where it is surrounded by a slightly elevated margin, which is prolonged anteriorly and superiorly into a finger-like appendage of various and invaluable use. This trunk or proboscis, as it is called, is divided throughout its whole extent into two equal cavities, which are continuous with the nostrils, but appear to have no other connexion with the organ of smell than as being the medium of the passage of odours to the olfactory apparatus, which is confined within the bones of the head, and is indeed seated much higher than usual in consequence of the large space occupied by the roots of the tusks and by the cavities of the maxillary bones. The real uses of the trunk are far higher and more important; and it is to this unique and unexampled structure that the Elephant owes whatever superiority he possesses over other beasts. In general capacity he is inferior to most, and the intellectual qualities of a dog or a horse are unquestionably of a far more elevated order; but with the assistance of this curious organ, with some little sagacity, a tolerable memory, and a certain degree of docility, the Elephant is enabled to execute such a variety of actions, either of his own accord or at the command of his keeper, as have gained him the credit not only of being the cleverest of brutes, but of possessing qualities of a superior cast and even the divine gift of reason itself.
The structure of the trunk is entirely muscular, and the fibres of which it is composed are arranged in such a manner that it is capable of being inflected in almost any direction; but to twist itself spirally inwards appears to be its most natural action. In this manner it willgrasp with the utmost firmness, for its strength is fully equal to its flexibility, whatever it may seize; and it is by this means that the Elephant conveys his food to his mouth. Being purely herbivorous, but encumbered with a head and appendages so weighty as to require all the support to be derived from an excessively short and almost unyielding neck, it would be utterly impossible for him to browse upon the herbage from which his sustenance is chiefly derived, and he would consequently run no small risk of absolute starvation, were it not for this admirable provision, by means of which he collects and enfolds his food, and conveys it to his mouth with as much ease and precision as a Monkey would execute the same motions with his hands. In drinking too the trunk offers the same facilities and performs the same useful and necessary office. Placing its extremity in the fluid which he is about to drink, the Elephant pumps up, or rather inhales, a sufficient quantity to fill its cavities, and then transferring it to his mouth pours its contents quietly down his throat. When his thirst is satisfied he will frequently continue the same process of filling his trunk for the purpose of discharging the liquid contained in it over his body, an indulgence in which he appears to take no little pleasure; and will even sometimes amuse himself by directing the fluid to other objects.
The Asiatic Elephant was until very lately considered as forming one species with the African, the clear and obvious distinctions which exist between them never having been noticed until pointed out by M. Cuvier, notwithstanding that both have been familiarly known for more than two thousand years to the nations ofEurope, the former having formed an important part of the armament with which Porus withstood the conquering arms of Alexander, and having been subsequently introduced even into Italy by Pyrrhus; and the latter, as we may fairly presume, furnishing those individuals which were employed in the warlike array of the Carthaginians. The Asiatic animal appears when fully grown to attain a larger size than the African, the females commonly measuring from seven to eight, and the males from eight to ten feet in height, and sometimes weighing six or seven thousand pounds. His head is more oblong, and his forehead presents in the centre a deep concavity between two lateral and rounded elevations; that of the African being round and convex in all its parts. The teeth of the former are composed of transverse vertical laminæ of equal breadth, while those of the latter form rhomboidal or lozenge-shaped divisions. The ears of the Asiatic are also smaller and descend no lower than his neck, and he exhibits four distinct toes on his hind feet: the African on the contrary is furnished with ears of much greater size, descending to his legs, and no more than three toes are visible on his posterior extremities. These differences are so striking and important, and indeed, so far as regards the form of the head and the structure of the teeth, so essential, that it is impossible not to adopt the division which has been founded upon them, and to consider the natives of the two continents as originally and specifically distinct.
The Asiatic Elephants themselves vary considerably in several minor particulars, such as the comparative length and thickness of their trunks and of their tusks, the latter of which are sometimes, even in the males, ofvery small dimensions. But these variations are evidently the result of locality and other fortuitous circumstances, the species appearing gradually to degenerate as it recedes from the tropics, and to improve as it advances towards the line. The Elephants of Ceylon are consequently in the highest esteem for size, beauty, and hardihood, and those of Pegu are but little inferior to them; while those of the northern districts of India are held in comparatively trifling estimation.
These animals are by nature sociable, and congregate together in herds, which frequently amount to more than a hundred. The imposing spectacle furnished by such a collection of these immense masses of animated matter may well be imagined. They generally seek the shade of the forest, in which they find additional means of subsistence in the young shoots of the trees, which supply the place of other and more congenial herbs. They frequently issue from it, however, in quest of the latter, and also to indulge in a propensity possessed by them in common with all those animals which like them are furnished with thick and almost naked, or with bristly, skins, that of bathing in the water or wallowing in the mud. It is for this reason that they are usually met with in the neighbourhood of large streams, which their great size and the quantity of fat with which they are commonly loaded enable them to swim with facility. Their trunk is also extremely serviceable in this operation, as it enables them to bury as it were the whole of their body beneath the water, retaining above the surface no more than the extremity of that organ for the admission and expulsion of the air. After having been for some time in the water, it is said that their skin loses thedusky hue by which it is usually distinguished in consequence of the dirt and other matters with which it is incrusted, and assumes a perfect flesh-colour marked with numerous round and blackish spots. This natural colour is, however, lost almost immediately on their reaching the land, when they uniformly scatter themselves all over by means of their trunk with the mud or dust which first falls in their way. So fond are they of this process that they commonly recur to it whenever an opportunity offers. The bathing appears to be absolutely necessary in order to keep their skins to a certain extent supple and flexible; for which purpose their keepers, in captivity, occasionally have recourse to the smearing them with oil as a substitute.
Like other herbivorous quadrupeds they are, generally speaking, quiet and harmless, intent solely upon providing for their wants, and never attacking man or other animals unless provoked or when under the influence of excitement. In this latter case they make use not only of their proboscis, which they wield with great dexterity as a weapon of offence, but also of their tusks, with which they inflict the most tremendous wounds. Their speed in pursuit corresponds rather with the cumbrousness than with the magnitude of their frame, the excessive weight of which soon renders them weary, and compels them to slacken their pace; which, when urged to the utmost, is barely equal to that of a horse of moderate fleetness. They will sometimes penetrate in quest of food into the rice fields and sugar plantations, in which they commit the most extensive ravages, not so much by the quantity which they consume as by that which they destroy. The solitary individuals, which areoccasionally met with separate from the general herd, indulge perhaps more frequently in these excesses than the community, which generally avoids as much as possible the habitations of man. It has commonly been imagined that these stray Elephants were the younger and weaker males, who had been driven from the herd by their more powerful fellows; but the fact that they are usually adults of the largest size completely negatives this supposition, and proves that it is of their own free will that they wander thus alone. They attain their full growth between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, and well authenticated instances have occurred in which they have reached the age of a hundred and thirty years. Indeed there is reason to believe that their life may be sometimes prolonged to two centuries.
The usual mode of catching the wild Elephants for the purpose of domestication has been so often described that it would be superfluous to repeat it here. It may be sufficient to observe that a herd of them having been driven by the hunters into an enclosure surrounded by palisades and ditches, and provided only with a narrow pass by way of egress, they are there made prisoners one after the other, and attached to the tame elephants, which are employed on such occasions partly as decoys and partly as guards over their captive brethren. The necessity of having recourse to this mode of supplying the wants, or rather of ministering to the pride, of the sovereigns of the East, both native and European, who alike regard these animals as the indispensable appendages of their rank, arises from the circumstance of the breed being very rarely propagated in captivity; the Hindoos being either too ignorant or too careless to adopt the requisitemeasures for securing its continuance, and relying upon the certainty of being enabled by their hunting to keep up a sufficient supply. But there can be little doubt, from what we observe in other animals, that had a domesticated breed of Elephants existed from the times when their services were first made available to man, they would have been far superior both in sagacity and docility to the half-reclaimed individuals at present employed.
It may readily be supposed that the taming of these wild and unwieldy creatures is a task of no little difficulty and delicacy: but the experienced keepers by whom it is undertaken seldom fail to execute it with success. It is effected partly by reducing the strength of the animal by restricting him in the quantity of his food, by the employment of caresses or of castigation according to the dispositions he may manifest, by occasionally indulging him in sweetmeats or in other dainty fare, and by subjecting him to the control of the tame elephants, and especially of the females, which are more commonly employed for this purpose. By the application of these means the space of a fortnight is generally sufficient to reduce him to a certain degree of tameness, and in less than six months he is trained to the various exercises which it is intended that he should perform, and his education is regarded as complete. They do not, however, always become familiar and habituated to their new mode of life even within this period of time; for, according to the statement of Mr. Corse, Elephants have been known to stand twelve months at their pickets without lying down to sleep; and this is regarded as a certain sign of want of confidence in their keepers and ofa longing desire to regain their liberty. It is probably to some such circumstance as this that we are indebted for the erroneous idea so generally prevalent that these animals always sleep standing; whereas the truth is, that when perfectly at ease and reconciled to their fate, they lie down on their sides and sleep like other beasts.
The purposes for which they are commonly employed are rather those of pomp, of luxury, and of ostentation, than of utility. As a means of warlike offence they have been, since the introduction of firearms, absolutely disused; and it is only as beasts of burden that they are turned to any useful account. In this respect the services of a single Elephant are equal to those of five or six horses, as they will carry from fifteen to twenty hundred weight, and travel from forty to fifty miles a day. They generally consume a hundred weight and a half or two hundred weight of solid food, and thirty or forty gallons of fluid, in the course of the day. They are fond of wine, spirits, and other intoxicating articles, by the attraction of which they are frequently induced to exert their powers, and to perform various feats of dexterity, when all other methods have failed to render them tractable. They become strongly attached to their keepers; but, if irritated by ill usage, their hatred is as violent as their affection, and is carefully stored up until a favourable opportunity occurs, when they seldom fail to remember an insult or an injury, even at very distant periods of time.
With regard to their sagacity much has been written, and many exaggerated and many incredible stories have been told; but it would appear that those who have attributed to the Elephant a degree of intelligencesuperior to every other beast, have been misled by outward appearances, and by the natural prepossession arising from his gigantic and imposing figure. Without his trunk, upon the singular and admirable structure of which most of that skill and dexterity which have been regarded as the result of mental reflection is entirely dependent, he would be, in all probability, as very a brute as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, or the hog. By means of that organ, however, he unquestionably acquires the capacity of performing feats of which other animals are incapable; but here his superiority ends. In intelligence, as in docility, he is far inferior to the dog; and many other quadrupeds might fairly compete with him in both. Thus to turn a key in a lock, to push back a bolt, to untie a rope, to uncork a bottle, to search in the pockets of his keepers for apples or oranges, these and many other tricks of a similar kind, for which he is famous, are evidently nothing more than mechanical actions, to the performance of which he is stimulated, like other beasts, at first by the promise of reward or the fear of chastisement, and afterwards by the mere force of habit. In like manner the dexterity with which he learns to load and unload himself, or to place a man or child upon his back by means of his trunk, without offering them the slightest injury; and on the other hand the precision with which he is made to execute the will of the Asiatic despot on the unhappy victims of his displeasure, by seizing them and casting them beneath his feet, to be there dispatched, according to the tenor of the orders which he receives, either with a single crush, or with all the horrors of a lingering death; these also are actions of no higher order than many other animals areequally capable of in a moral point of view, although not so well fitted for them by physical conformation.
In conclusion we have only to add that the fine little Elephant from which our figure was taken appears from his dimensions and from the very small size of his tusks to be little more than three years old. He is extremely good tempered, and became reconciled to his situation almost from the very moment of his arrival.
War-elephants in battle
Zebra
Equus Burchellii.
The well known group of which the Horse, the Ass, and the Zebra constitute the leading species, is distinguished from all other quadrupeds by the form of their hoof, which is single and undivided, rounded in front, of considerable thickness, and enveloping the extremity of their only apparent toe. They have in each jaw six powerful cutting teeth, accompanied on either side by the same number of grinders with square crowns flattened at the top: the males have two canines in the upper jaw, and frequently in the lower also; and this structure is sometimes shared by the females of the domesticated races. Between the canines and the molarsthere is a vacant space, which, our readers scarcely need to be reminded, receives the bit, the small but irresistible instrument by means of which man has for ages exercised the most complete control over the services of these useful animals. Although purely and essentially herbivorous, their anatomy, as well as their habits, separates them most thoroughly from the Ruminants, and approximates them in several respects to the Pachydermatous order, with which, in spite of their many discrepancies, both physical and moral, M. Cuvier has associated them. It is needless to point out the incongruity of this union, and it would be equally so to say more of the general form and external characteristics of a group, the principal species of which are so constantly before our eyes.
It may, however, be observed, that it has been proposed to divide it into two distinct genera, the one containing the Horse alone, and characterized by the flowing tail uniformly covered with long hair, by the absence of a line of darker coloured hairs along the back, and by the presence of callous protuberances on the hind legs as well as on the fore: the other comprehending the Asses and Zebras, and distinguished by the tail having a brush of long hairs at its extremity only, by the presence of the dorsal line, and the absence of the protuberances on the posterior legs. Such a division, resting as it does on striking but not very essential differences, may fairly be admitted for the purpose of separating the genus into sections; but can hardly be regarded as founded on characters of sufficient importance to disunite so well marked and strongly connected, as well as so limited, a group. In the same paper inwhich this new arrangement was proposed, the beautiful animal which we have now to describe was first specifically distinguished by Mr. Gray from the Common Zebra, with which it had previously been confounded, and characterized by him under the name of the Asinus Burchellii. Still there exists so much confusion between the two Zebras, many naturalists falling into the same error with Mr. Burchell, who first remarked the distinction between them, and regarding the present animal as the Zebra of zoologists, and the common one in reality as the new species; while others have absolutely counterchanged a part of the characters of each, and thus made confusion worse confounded; that we cannot do better than describe with some little detail the markings of the individual now before us.
The ground colour of its whole body is white, interrupted by a regular series of broad black stripes extending from the back across the sides, with narrower and fainter ones intervening between each. Over the haunches and shoulders these stripes form a kind of bifurcation, between the divisions of which there are a few transverse lines of the same colour; but these suddenly and abruptly cease, and are not continued on the legs, which are perfectly white. Along the back there is a narrow longitudinal line, bordered on each side with white. The mane is throughout broadly and deeply tipped with black, and is marked by a continuation of the transverse bands of the neck. The lines of the face are narrow and beautifully regular; from the centre of the forehead they radiate downwards over the eyes; along the front of the muzzle they are longitudinal, the outer ones having a curve outwards; and on the sides they form broadertransverse bands. From the confluence of these bands on the extremity of the muzzle, the nose, and the lower lip, those parts become of a nearly uniform blackish brown. The tail is white: there is no longitudinal ventral line: and a large black patch occupies the posterior part of the ear near the tip. The hoofs are moderately large, deep in front, shallow behind, and much expanded at their margin.
Of the habits of these animals in a state of nature we know but little. They inhabit the flat parts near the Cape of Good Hope, the common Zebra being confined to the mountains. All the attempts that have been made to domesticate either the one or the other, and to render them serviceable, have hitherto failed; but there seems no good reason why they should not, with proper management, be brought as completely under subjection as the other species of the genus. The subject of the present article, which has now been about two years in the Menagerie, will suffer a boy to ride her about the yard, and is frequently allowed to run loose through the Tower, with a man by her side, whom she does not attempt to quit except to run to the Canteen, where she is occasionally indulged with a draught of ale, of which she is particularly fond.