Chap. XVII. SEXUAL SELECTION : MAMMALS. 239 



CHAPTEK XVII. 



Secondary Sexual Characters of Mammals. 



The law of battle — Special weapons, confined to the males — Cause 

 of absence of weapons in the female — Weapons common to both 

 sexes, yet primarily acquired by the male — Other uses of such 

 weapons — Their high importance — Greater size of the male — 

 Means of defence — On the preference shewn by either sex in the 

 pairing of quadrupeds. 



With mammals tlie male appears to win the female 

 much more through the law of battle than throuaii the 

 display of his charms. The most timid animals, not 

 provided with any special weapons for fighting, engage 

 in desperate conflicts during the season of love. Tw^o 

 male hares have been seen to fight together imtil one 

 was killed ; male moles often fight, and sometimes with 

 fatal results ; male squirrels " engage in frequent con- 

 " tests, and often wound each other severely;" as do 

 male beavers, so that *' hardly a skin is without scars."^ 

 I observed the same fact with the hides of the guana- 

 coes in Patagonia ; and on one occasion several were so 

 absorbed in fighting that they fearlessly rushed close by 

 me. Livingstone speaks of the males of the many ani- 

 mals in Southern Africa as almost invariably shewing 

 the scars received in former contests. 



The law of battle prevails with aquatic as with ter- 



^ See Waterton's account of two hares fighting, ' Zoologist,' vol. i. 

 1843, p. 211. On moles, Bell, 'Hist.- of British Quadrupeds,' 1st edit, 

 p. 100. On squirrels, Audubon and Bachman, ' Viviparous Quadrupeds 

 of N. America.' 1846, p. 269. On beavers, Mr. A. H. Green, in ' Journal 

 of Lin. Soc. Zoolog.' vol. x. 1869, p. 362. 



