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Show 278 SEXUAL SELEC'l'ION : MAMMALS. PART II. posed by some writers to affect the voice. The nose of the malo sea-elephant (MaC?'orhimts proboscideus), when about three years old is oreatly elongated durmg the ' b • breeding-season, and can then be erected. In tlns state it is sometimes a foot in length. The female at no period of life is thus provided, and her v?ice is different. :;rhat of the male consists of a w1ld, ~1oarsc, gurgling noise, which is audible at a great distanc.e, and is believed to be strengthened by the proboscis. Lesson compares tho erection of ~he probos.cis, to ~he swelling of the wattles of male gallinaceous buds, whilst they court the females. In another allied kind of seal, namely, the bladder-nose ( Oystophot·a cristata~, t?e .head is covered hv a great hood or bladder. Th1s IS mternally suppo;ted by the septum of the nose, which is produced far backwards and rises into ~ crest sev~n inches in height. rThe hood is clothed Wlth short hau, and is muscular ; it can be inflated until it more than equals the whole head in size! The males when ruttin()' :fio·ht furiously on the ice, and their roaring "is b 0 " said to be sometimes so loud as to be beard four ,, miles off." When attacked by man they likewise roar or bellow; and whenever irl'itated the bladder is inflated. Some naturalists believe that the voice is thus strengthened, but various other uses have been assi~ned to this extraordinary structure. Mr. R. Brown thmks that it serves as a protection against accidents of all kinds. This latter view is not probable, if what the sealers have long maintained is correct, namely, that the hood or bladder is very poorly developed in the females and in the males whilst young.8 s On the sea-elephant, sec au nrticlo by Lesson, in 'Diet. Class. 1-Iist. Nat.' tom. xiii. p. 418. For the Cystophora or Stcmmatopus, sec Dr. Dekay, 'Aunals of Lyceum of Nat. llist. New York,' vol. i. 182 ~, p. 94. Pennant has also collected information from the sealers on thu:1 •CIJAP. XVIII. ODOURS EMIT'.rED. 279 Odo~w.-vVith some animals, as with the notorious sk~nk of America, the overwhelming odour which they e~It appears t? serve exclusively as a means of defence. With shrew-miCe (Sorex) both sexes possess abdominal ·scent-gl~nds, ~nd there can be little doubt, from the manner m whiCh their bodies are rejected by birds and beasts of prey, that their odour is protective; nevertheless th~ glands become enlarged in the males during the breedmg-season. In many quadrupeds the glands are of the same size in both sexes ; 9 but their use is not known. In other ·opecies the glands are confined to the males, or are more developed in them than in .the. female.s; and they almost always become more .active dunng the rutting-season. At this period the glands on the s~des of the face of the male elephant enlarge and emit a secretion having a stroiw musky odour. b The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known and that. of certain male deer is wonderfully stron~ an.d persistent. On the banks of the Plata I have perceived the whole air tainted with the odour of the male Cervus eampestris, at the distance of half a mile to lee\\:ard of a herd; and a silk handkerchief, in which I .carr~ed home a skin, though repeatedly used and washed, mtamed, when first unfolded, traces of the odour for ?ne year and seven months. This animal does not emit 1ts strong odour until more than a year old, and if cas- ·animal. . The fullest account is given by Mr. Brown who doubts about tho rudimentary condition of the bladder in tho' female in • Proc Zoolog. Soc.' 1868, p. 435. ' · 9 A.s w~t~. the eastoroum of the. beaver, see Mr. L. H. Morgan's rr:ost. m~elo:;tJ~g wor~~.' Tl1e Amencan Beaver,' 1868, p. 300. Pallas ( 1 Sptc. Zoolog. fase. Vlu. 1779, p. 2~) has well discussed the odoriferous g and~ of mammals. Owen ('Aunt. of Vertebrates' vol 1·;1· p 634) nlsdo g Ives an account of these glunds, including thos' e of t·h e· e· lep· hant an (p. 763) those.of shrew-mice. ' |
