. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. ELEPHANT, TAPIR, HYRAX, RHINOCEROS 157 Mithridates, who, I suppose, drew his supply from India? 1 know in the representations of elephants on the medals of Faustina and of Septimus Severus the ears are African, though the bodies and heads are Indian; but these were struck nearly 400 years after Carthaginian times, when the whole known world had been ransacked by the Romans for beasts for their public shows; and I still think it possible that the Carthaginiansâthe great traders and colonisers of oldâmay have obtained elephants through some of their colonies f
. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. ELEPHANT, TAPIR, HYRAX, RHINOCEROS 157 Mithridates, who, I suppose, drew his supply from India? 1 know in the representations of elephants on the medals of Faustina and of Septimus Severus the ears are African, though the bodies and heads are Indian; but these were struck nearly 400 years after Carthaginian times, when the whole known world had been ransacked by the Romans for beasts for their public shows; and I still think it possible that the Carthaginiansâthe great traders and colonisers of oldâmay have obtained elephants through some of their colonies from ; An interesting example of the intelligence of these animals can be seen any day at the public Zoological Gardens. A large African ele- phant restores to his would-be entertainers all the biscuits, whole or broken, which strike the bars and fall alike out of his reach and theirs in the space between the barrier and his cage. He points his frunk at the â biscuits, and blows them hard along the floor to the feet of the persons who have thrown them. He clearly knows what he is doing, because, if the biscuits do not travel far enough, he gives them a harder blow. TAPIRS AND HYRAX. BY W. P. PYCRAFT, , Tapirs are odd-looking creatures, and, strange as it may seem, are nevertheless related on the one hand to the rhinoceroses, and on the other to the horses. They are furthermore extremely interesting animals, because they have undergone less modification of form than any other members of the group to which they belong. This we know because fossil tapirs, belonging to a very remote period of the world's history, are practically indistinguishable from those now living. The general form of the body may perhaps be described as pig-like ; the head, too, suggests that animal. But the pig's snout is here produced into a short proboscis, or trunk. The feet are quite unlike those of the pig, and resemble those of the rhinoceros. The fore feet have each four and t
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Keywords: ., bookauthorco, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmammals
