  We present an analysis of the neutral hydrogen and stellar populations of
elliptical galaxies in the Tal et al. (2009) sample. Our aim is to test their
conclusion that the continuing assembly of these galaxies at z~0 is essentially
gas-free and not accompanied by significant star formation. In order to do so,
we make use of HI data and line-strength indices available in the literature.
We look for direct and indirect evidence of the presence of cold gas during the
recent assembly of these objects and analyse its relation to galaxy
morphological fine structure.
  We find that >25% of ellipticals contain HI at the level of M(HI)>10^8
M(Sun), and that M(HI) is of the order of a few percent of the total stellar
mass. Available data are insufficient to establish whether galaxies with a
disturbed stellar morphology are more likely to contain HI. However, HI
interferometry reveals very disturbed gas morphology/kinematics in all but one
of the detected systems, confirming the continuing assembly of many ellipticals
but also showing that this is not necessarily gas-free. We also find that all
very disturbed ellipticals have a single-stellar-population-equivalent age <4
Gyr. We interpret this as evidence that ~0.5-5% of their stellar mass is
contained in a young population formed during the past ~1 Gyr. Overall, a large
fraction of ellipticals seem to have continued their assembly over the past few
Gyr in the presence of a mass of cold gas of the order of 10% of the galaxy
stellar mass. This material is now observable as neutral hydrogen and young
stars.
