Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/199

Rh eye and ear—commonly called the temple—is less marked. The countenance is more pleasing, the eye brighter and kinder looking.

The Muchnas—called by the Burmese "Hines"—has the head much longer and narrower, the temple very much depressed. The trunk is longer and very ponderous, possessing immense strength, as if to compensate the animals for the want of the formidable tusks possessed by the Goondas.

If nature has not given intellect to these animals, it has given them an instinct next thing to it. One has only to hunt them in their wilds to learn how wonderfully Providence has taught them to choose the most favourable ground, whether for feeding or encamping, and to resort to jungles where their ponderous bodies so resemble rocks or the dark foliage that it is most difficult for the sportsman to distinguish them from surrounding objects; whilst their feet are so made that not only can they tramp over any kind of ground, hard or soft, thorny or smooth, but without emitting a sound. The Indian Elephants prefer forests by day and open ground by night, and feed on bamboos, wild cardamoms, plantains, null, branches (leaves) of trees, especially of the Ficus tribe, or long grass, which is abundant on all the plains. They are very fond of hiding in a wood in the vicinity of cultivation during the day, and sallying forth to plunder at night. They do a great deal of damage, not only in what they eat, but more in what they trample down and destroy. Elephants are at all times a wandering race; they consume so much and waste so much more, that no single forest could long support them, hence their roving propensities.

Whilst the European sportsman in India fires only for the brain of an Elephant, natives often kill them by firing at the point of the shoulder. Elephants have a very keen sense of smell and of hearing, and they must be approached up wind. In the dry season there are so many fallen twigs and dry leaves that it is almost impossible to come close enough to a herd to kill one; the slightest noise, and off they go! But after the jungles have been burnt and rain has fallen, especially when they are feeding on bamboos, they are easier to get at. Colonel McMaster, an excellent sportsman and naturalist, says of Elephants:—

"Those who only think of Elephants as they have seen these