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Show 252 SEXUAL SELECTION : 1\'IAl\IMALS. PART 1[. doing this, he suddenly springs up, throwing up his bead at tho same time, and can thus wound or perhaps oven tran. fix his antagonist. Both animals always kneel down so as to guard as far as possible against this manoouvre. It has been recorded that one of these antelopes has used his horns with effect oven again t a lion; yet from being forced to place his head between the foro-leO's in order to bring the points of tho horns forward, hb e would generally bo under a groat dI' S-advantao ·o when attacked by any other animal. It is, therefor~, not probable that tho horns have been modified into their present great length and peculiar position, as a protection against beasts of prey. vVe can, however, sec that as soon as some ancient male progenitor of the Oryx acquired moderately long horns, directed a little backwards, he would be compelled in his battles with rival males to bond his head somewhat inwards or downwards, as is now clone by certain stags; and it is not improbable that he might have acquired the habit of at first occasionally and afterwards of regularly kneeling down. In this case it is almost certain that the males which possessed the longest horns would have bad a great ad vantage over others with shorter horns ; and then the horns would gradually have been rendered longer and longer, through sexual selection, until they acquired their present extraordinary length and position. With stags of many kinds the branchiug of the horns offers a curious case of difficulty ; for certainly a single straight point would inflict a much more serious wound than several diverging points. In Sir Philip Egerton's museum there is a horn of the red-deer ( Oe1·vus elaph~ ts) thirty inches in length, with " not fewer than "fifteen snags or branches;'' and at 1\:Ioritzburg there is still preserved a pair of antlers of a red-doer, shot in Ci!AP. XVIII. LAW OF B.ATTLE. 253 1699 by Frederick I ., each of which bears the astonishing number of thirty-three branches. Richardson figures a pair of antlers of tho wild I'eincloor with twentynine points.2° From the manner in which the horns arc branched, and more especially from deer being known occasionally to fight together by kicking with their fore-feet,21 1\'I. Bailly actually came to the conclusion that their horns wore more injurious than useful to them! But this author overlooks the pitched battles between rival males. As I felt much perplexed about tho u. e or ad vantage of the branches, I applied to Mr. MeN eill of Colinsay, who bas long and carefully observed the habits of red-deer, and he informs me that he has never seen some of the branches brought into action, but that the brow-antlers, from inclining downwards, are a great protection to the forehead, and their points are likewise used in attack. Sir Philip Egerton also informs me in regard both to red-deer and fallowdeer, that when they fight they suddenly dash together, and getting their horns fixed against each other's bodies n desperate struggle ensues. When one is at last forced to yield and turn round, the victor endeavours to plunge his brow-antlers into his defeated foe. It thus appears that the upper branches are used chiefly or exclusively for pushing and fencing. N overtheless with some species the upper branches are used as weapons of offence; when a man was attacked by a ~0 Owen, on tho IIorns of Ue<l-<leer, ' British Fossil Mammals,' 1816, p. 478; 'Forest Creatures,' by Cbm·los Boner, 1861, p. 76, 62. Ricblmlson on the Horns of the Reindeer, 'Fauna Bor. Americana,' 1829, p. 240. 21 lion. J.D. Caton(' Ottnwa Aoad. of Nat. Science,' May, 1868, p. 9), says that the American door :fight with their fore-feet, after "tho question of superiority has been once settled nnd acknowledged in tho herd." Bailly, "Sur l'nsago des 001·ncs," 'Annales des Sc. Nat.' tom. ii. 1821, p. 371. |