ION.--Pale sandy red, darker on the top of the head, the
shoulders and fore part of back; two large patches behind the ears;
the feet and the under-parts are pale buff yellow; ears moderately
large, subovate and well clad, rusty yellow, paler on the under part;
whiskers very long, brown, a few brownish white; toe-pads blackish.

SIZE.-About 8 inches.

This species has been found in the rocky hills of Cabul. _Lagomys
Hodgsonii_, from Lahoul, Ladakh and Kulu, is considered to be the
same as the above, and _L. Nipalensis_, described by Waterhouse, as
synonymous with _L. Roylei_.

* * * * *

Under the systems of older naturalists the thick-skinned animals
were lumped together under the order UNGULATA, or _hoofed animals_,
subdivided by Cuvier into _Pachydermata_, or thick-skinned
non-ruminants, and _Ruminantia_, or ruminating animals; but neither
the elephant nor the coney can be called hoofed animals, and in other
respects they so entirely differ from the rest that recent
systematists have separated them into three distinct
orders--_Proboscidea_, _Hyracoidea_ and _Ungulata_, which
classification I here adopt.

ORDER PROBOSCIDEA.

It seems a strange jump from the order which contains the smallest
mammal, the little harvest mouse, to that which contains the gigantic
elephant--a step from the ridiculous to the sublime; yet there are
points of affinity between the little mouse and the giant tusker to
which I will allude further on, and which bring together these two
unequal links in the great chain of nature. The order Proboscidea,
or animals whose noses are prolonged into a flexible trunk, consists
of one genus containing two living species only--the Indian and
African Elephants. To this in the fossil world are added two more
genera--the _Mastodon_ and _Dinotherium_.

The elephant is one of the oldest known of animals. Frequent mention
is made in the Scriptures and ancient writings of the use of ivory.
In the First Book of Kings and the Second of Chronicles, it is
mentioned how Solomon's ships brought every three years from
Tarshish gold and silver and ivory (or elephants' teeth) apes and
peacocks. In the Apocrypha the animal itself, and its use in war,
is mentioned; in the old Sanscrit writings it frequently appears.
Aristotle and Pliny were firm believers in the superstition which
prevailed, even to more recent times, that it had no joints.

"The elephant hath joints, but