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
animal and 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE AFRICAN 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 Porcupines are 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE ASIATIC 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 a theme 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 distinctive zoological 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 kingdom affords, 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 than
the 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 will grasp 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 of Europe, 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,
of very 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 the dusky 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 are
occasionally 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 requisite measures 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
of a 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.