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Show 25± SEXUAL SELECTION: MAMMALS. PAin' II. \Vupiti deer (Oe1·vus Octnadensis) in Judge Caton's park in Ottawa, and several men tried to rescue him, tho stag " never raised his head from the ground ; in fact he kept "his face almost flat on the ground, with his nose nearly "Letween his fore-feet, except when he rolled his head " to one side to take a new observation preparatory to " a plunge." In this position the terminal points of the horns were directed against his adversaries. "In "rolling his head he necessarily raised it some·what, "because his antlers were so long that he could not "roll his head without raising them on one side, while "on the other side they touched the ground." The stag by this procedure gradually drove the party of rescuers backwards, to a distance of 150 or 200 feet ; and the attacked man was killed.22 Although the horns of stags are efficient weapons, there can, I think, be no doubt that a single point would have been much more dangerous than a branched antler ; and Judge Caton, who has had large experience with deer, fully concurs in this conclusion. Nor do the branching horns, though highly important as a means of defence against rival stags, appear perfectly well adapted for this purpose, as they are liable to become interlocked. The suspicion has therefore crossed my mind that they may serve partly as ornaments. rrhat the branched antlers of stags, as well as the elegant l yratcd horns of certain antelopes, with their graceful double curvature, (fig. 62), are ornamental in our eyes, no one will dispute. If, then, the horns, like the splendid accoutrements of the knights of old, add to the noble appearance of stags and antelopes, they may have been partly modified for this purpose, ~2 Sec a most interesting account in the Appendix: to lion. J.D. Caton's paper, a,s above quoted, CHAP. XVII. LAW OF .BATTLE. 255 though mainly for actual service in battle· but I have no evidence in favour of this belief. ' Fig. 62. Strepsiccros Kudu (from Andrew Smith's • Zoology of South Afri:'.D. '). ~n ~nteresting case has lately been published, from :vhzch It appears that the horns of a deer in one district In the United States are now ·being modified throuO'h sexual and natural selection. A writer in an excelle:t |