FUNCTIONS. The digestive apparatus of the elephant is similar to that of other herbivorous animals; but the stomach, which is of a very lengthened and narrow form, has near the gullet a reservoir for water, capable of containing several gallons, while a peculiar muscle. eon meting the windpipe and gullet. enables the ani mal to regurgitate the fluid, which may then he sucked from the mouth into the trunk. and squirted over the body, or at some offending man or animal.
The female elephant has only two teats, situ ated between the fore legs. The young suck with the mouth and not with the trunk. They are suckled for about two years. The period of gestation is also nearly two years, and a single young one is produced at a birth.
The skin of the elephant is very thick, of a dark brown color, and in the existing species has scarcely any covering of hair. The tail does not reach to the ground. and has a tuft of coarse bristles at the end. The feet have toes, each in cased in a kind of hoof.
llAttu's. ETC. Elephants live in herds. not generally numerous, but several herds often congregate together in the forest or at the same place of drinking. Each herd has a leader, generally the largest and most powerful animal. The leader seems to exercise much control over the herd. gives the alarm in ease of danger, and seems to examine and decide for the whole herd as to the safety of proceeding in any particular direction. A family resemblance i, usually visi ble among the elephants of the .same herd: SnIlle herds are distinguished by greater stature. and others bp more bulky form and stronger limbs; some by particularly large tusks, by slight peculiarities of the trunk. etc. in the East In
dies, distinctions of this kind have long been carefully noticed, and some are eonsidered as 'high-caste,' others as low-caste' elephants. An elephant which by any cause has been separated from its herd seems never to be admitted into another, and these solitary males are particular ly troublesome in their depredations, exhibiting an audacity which the herds never show; they are also savage and much dreaded, while from a herd of elephants (longer i- rarely apprehended. These remarks apply especially to the Asiatic species.
The favorite haunts of the African elephant are mountainous districts with a scattered tree growth; but the Asiatic species keeps itself in ihe depths of forests. particularly in mountain ous regions, where they browse on branches or eat herbage, roots, ere., and from which they issue chiefly in the cool of the night to pasture in the more open grounds. They feed largely on the young shoots of palm•trees. and crush and eat the cocoanuts, after rolling each one under foot to rub off the husk; and they often do vast damage to erops.
Elephants delight in abundance of water, and inter it very freely, often remaining in it for a considerable time and with great evident en joyment. swimming with ease and skill.
Two species of elephant only survive the decay of a family much more numerous and m. w.(a,pread in the geological period that preceded the prey' ent, one African and the other .Asiatic. For fossil and extinct !Tech.,. see .ection fossil ',hunts, and see also .11Ammorit: AlAsr000x.