240 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAMMALS. Part II. 



restrial mammals. It is notorious liow dj^sperately male 

 seals iiglit, both with their teeth and claws, during the 

 breeding-season ; and their hides are likewise often 

 covered with scars. Male sperm-whales are very jea- 

 lous at this season ; and in their battles " they often 

 " lock their jaws together, and turn on their sides and 

 " twist about ;" so that it is believed by some naturalists 

 that the frequently deformed state of their lower jaws is 

 caused by these struggles.^ 



All male animals which are furnished with special 

 weapons for fighting, are well known to engage in fierce 

 battles. The courage and the desperate conflicts of stags 

 have often been described ; their skeletons have been 

 found in various parts of the world, Mith the horns in- 

 extricably locked together, shewing how miserably the 

 victor and vanquished had perished.^ No animal in the 

 world is so dangerous as an elephant in must. Lord 

 Tanker ville has given me a graphic description of the 

 battles between the wild bulls in Chillingham Park, 

 the descendants, degenerated in size but not in courage, 

 of the gigantic Bos primi genius. In 1861 several con- 

 tended for mastery; and it was observed that two of 

 the younger bulls attacked in concert the old leader 

 of the herd, overthrew^ and disabled him, so that he was 

 believed by the keepers to be lying mortally wounded 

 in a neighbouring wood. But a few days afterwards one 

 of the young bulls singly approached the wood ; and 



- On the battles of seals, see Capt. C. Abbott in ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 

 1868, p. 191; also Mr. E. Brown, ibid. 1868, p. 436; also L. Lloyd, 

 ' Game Birds of Sweden,' 1867, p. 412 ; alto Pennant. On the sperm- 

 whale, see Mr. J. H. Thompson, in ' Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1867, p. 246. 



^ See Serope ('Art of Deer-stalking,' p. 17) on the locking of the 

 horns with the Cervus elaphus. Eichardson, in ' Fauna Bor. Ameri- 

 cana,' 1829, p. 252, says that the wajiiti, moose, and I'ein-deer have been 

 found thus locked together. Sir A. Smith found at the Cape of Good 

 Hope the skeletons of two gnus in tlie same condition. 



