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Show 112 MEANS OF EXPRESSION 1nale cats during their mutual battles. The same 1novement is very striking in tigers, leopards, &c., whilst growling over their food in menageries. The lynx has remarkably long ears; and their retraction, when one of these animals is approached in its cage, is very conspicuous, and is eminently expressive of its savage disposition. Even one of the Eared Seals, the Otaria pusilla, which has very small ears, draws then; backwards, when it makes a savage rush at the legs of 1ts keeper. When horses fight together they use their incisors for biting, and their fore-legs for striking, much more tha? they do their hind-legs for kicking backwards. This has been observed when stallions have broken loose and have fought together, and may likewise be inferred from the kind of wounds which they inflict on each other. Every one recognises the vicious appearance which the drawing back of the ears gives to a horse. This 1novement is very different from that of li:stening to a sound behind. If an ill-tem~ered horse in a stall is inclined to kick backwards, h1s ears are retracted from habit, though he has no intention or power to bite. But when a horse throws up both hindlegs in play, as when entering an open field, or when just touched by the whip, he does not generally depress his ears, for he does not then feel vicious. Guanacoes fiO'ht savagely with their teeth; and they 1nust do so ft~quently, for I found the hides of several which I shot in Patagonia deeply scored. So do camels; and both these animals, when savage, draw their ears closely backwards. Guanacoes, as I have noticed, when not intending to bite, but merely to spit their offensive saliva from a distance at an intruder, retract their ears. Even the hippopotamus, when threatening with its widely-open enormous mouth a comrade, draws back it~ s1na1l ears, just like a horse. 'HAP. 1 \T, IN ANil\IAL • 113 Now what a contra t is presented betwe n the foregoing animals an l cattle, sheep, or goat , which uov.er use their teeth in fighting, and nev r draw back their ear1::1 when enrag \d! Although sheep and goat ~p~ear uch placid ani1nals, the males often join in funous con.tests. As deer form a clo ely related family, and as I hd n t know that they ever fought with their tee~h, I was much surpri od at the account given by 1\faJor l{oss IGng of the 1\Ioose-d er in Canada. lie says, wh n "two males chance to meet, laying back " their ears and gna bing their teeth together, they ''rush at each other with appalling fury." 33 But 1\ir. l3artle~t infor~s me tl1at some species of · deer fight savagely With then· teeth, so that the drawing back of the ears by the moose accords with our rule. Several kinds of kangaroo , kept in the Zoological Gardens fi~ht by· ~cra~ching with their fore-feet and by kickin~ With theu lund-legs; but they never bite each other, and the keepers have never seen them draw back their ears when ~ngered. Rabbits £ght chiefly by kicking and scratching, but they likewise bite each other ; and I have known one to bite off half the tail of its antagonist. At .the commencement of their battles they lay back their ears, but afterwards, as they bound over and kick each other, they keep their ears erect, or 1nove them much about. Mr. Bartlett watched a wild .boar quarrelling rather savagely. with his so.w; and both had their n1ouths open and their ears drawn backwards. But this does not HJ>pear to be a common action with domestic pio·s when q ~lU.JTelli~g. Boars fight together by striking ~pward~ With theu tusks; aucl Mr. Bartlett doubts wheth r they then draw back their ears. Elephant. ·, which iu - ----- J J ''l'hc ~portsmau antl Nuturali::-;L in Canada,' 181JU, p. 513. I |