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Show 288 THE PRINCIPLES OF PART II. An excellent case for investigation is afforded by the Deer Family. In all the species, excepting one, the horns are developed in the male alone, though certainly transmitted through the female, and capable of occasional abnormal development in her. In the reindeer, on the other hand, the female is provided with horns ; so that in this species, the horns ought, according to our rule, to appear early in life, long before the two sexes had arrived at maturity and had come to differ much in constitution. In all the other species of deer the horns ought to appear later in life, leading to their development in that sex alone, in which they first appeared in the progenitor of the whole Family. Now in seven species, belonging to distinct sections of the family and inhabiting different regions, in which the stags alone bear horns, I find that the horns first appear at periods varying from nine months after birth in the roebuck to ten or twelve or even more months in the stags of the six other larger species.24 But with the reindeer the case is widely different, for as I hear from Prof. Nilsson, who kindly made special enquiries for me in Lapland, the horns appear in the young animals within four or five weeks after birth, and at the same time in both Bexes. So that here we have a structure, developed at a most unusually early age in one species of the family, and common to both sexes in this one species. In several kinds of antelopes the males alone a1·e 24 I am much obliged to Mr. Cupples for having made enquiries for me in regard to the Roebuck and Red Deer of Scotland from l\fr. Hobertson, the expetienced head-forester to the Marquis ofBreadalbane. In regard to Fallow-doer, I nm obliged to Mr. Eyton and others for information. F or the Ce1-vus alces of N. America, see • Land and Water,' 1868, p. 221 and 254; and for the C. Virginianus and strongyloceros of the same continent, see J. D. Caton, in 'Ottawa Acad. of Nat. Sc.' 1868, p. 13. For Cer·vus Eldi of Pegu, see Lieut. Beavan, ' Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1867, p. 762. CHAP. VIII. SEXUAL SELECTION. 289 provided with horns, whilst in the great er number both sexes have horns. With respect to the period of development, l\fr. Blyth informs me that there lived at one time in the Zoological Gardens a young koodoo (Ant. strepsiceros), in which species the males alone are horned, and the young of a closely-allied species, viz. the eland (Ant. oreas), in which both sexes are horned. Now in strict conformity with our rule, in the young male koodoo, although arrived at the age of ten months, the horns were remarkably small considering the size ultimately attained by them: whilst in the young male eland, although only three months old, the horns were already very much larger than in the koodoo. It is also worth notice that in the prong-horned antelope,25 in which species the horns, though present in both sexes, are almost rudimentary in the female, they do not appear until about five or six months after birth. With sheep, goats, and cattle, in which the horns are well developed in both sexes, though not quite equal in size, they can be felt, or even seen, at birth or soon afterwards. 26 Our rule, however, fails in regard to some breeds of sheep, for instance merinos, in which the rams alone are horned; for I cannot find on enquiry,27 that 25 Antilocapra Americana. Owen, 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 627. 21 i I have been assured that the horns of the ~heep in North Wales can always be felt, and are sometimes even an inch in length, at birth. With cattle Youatt says (' Cattle,' 1834, p. 277) that the prominence of the frontal bone penetrates the cutis at birth, and that the horny matter is soon formed over it. 27 I am greatly indebted to Prof. Victor Carns for having made inquiries for me, from the highest authorities, with respect to the merino sheep of Saxony. On the Guinea coast of Africa there is a breed of sheep. in which, as with merinos, the rams alone bear horns; and Mr. Winwoori Reade informs me that in the one case observed, a young ram born on Feb. lOth first showed horns on March 6th, so that in this instance the development of the horns occurred at a later vo~ L u |
