All members of a herd generally belong to the same family, and are nearly related: different herds do not mix, but stray females or young males appear to obtain admission to a herd without difficulty. The leader of a herd is invariably a female. According to Sanderson a really solitary elephant is rare, many "rogue" elephants that have become notorious belonging to a herd.
The food of elephants consists principally of various kinds of grass, leaves and shoots of bamboos, wild plantains (Musa), of which both stems and leaves are eaten, and leaves, small branches, and bark of particular trees, especially of species of Ficus. Sanderson found by experiment that a full-grown elephant consumes between 600 and 700 lb. of green fodder per diem. Elephants drink twice a day in general, before sunset and after sunrise. Both food and drink are conveyed to the mouth by the trunk; tufts of grass or branches of trees are plucked by coiling the end of the trunk round them; leaves are stripped from boughs, and even bark from trees or branches, in a similar manner; only very small objects, such as small fruits, are picked up between the lobes above and below the nostrils at the tip of the trunk. In drinking, the end of the trunk is immersed and the lower part (in Sanderson's opinion not more than 15 or 18 inches) filled by suction with water, which is then discharged into the mouth. Grain such as rice is eaten in a similar way, being drawn into the end of the trunk and then blown into the mouth.
In the wild state elephants roam about and feed for the greater part of the day and night, resting from about 9 or 10 a.m. till about 3 p.m. and again from about 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. They lie down to sleep like other mammals. Whilst feeding the herds scatter somewhat, but they quickly collect when alarmed. In many places elephants migrate considerable distances at particular seasons, chiefly in search of fodder, but partly it is believed to avoid insects, and generally from higher to lower ground or vice versâ, or from one kind of forest to another. In marching, they keep in strict Indian file. They are fond of bathing and of rolling in mud in warm weather. They squirt water on their bodies with their trunks when heated, and when water is not at hand they draw some, by means not clearly understood, from the mouth or throat. The fluid thus obtained is probably a secretion, perhaps salivary. They sometimes, especially when exposed to the sun, throw dust or leaves over their backs.
The sense of smell is highly developed, but neither sight nor hearing is particularly acute.
The only pace of elephants is a walk, slow or quick, at times increased to a shuffling run. They are incapable of any motion resembhng a gallop, or of the least jump, vertical or horizontal. A 7-foot trench is impassable by them, though a large elephant can clear 6½ feet in its stride. They climb very steep places, bending the fore legs when ascending and the hind legs when descending, and kicking or pressing holes for the feet if necessary (J. A. S. B. xiii, p. 917, pl. ii). In kneeling down an elephant
