Chap. XVII. LAW OF BATTLE. 247 



breeds of the slieep and goat, the males alone are fur- 

 nished with horns ; and it is a significant fact, that in 

 one snch breed of sheep on the Guinea coast, the horns 

 are not developed, as Mr. Win wood Reade informs me, 

 in the castrated male ; so that they are affected in 

 this respect like the horns of stags. In some breeds, 

 as in that of N. Wales, in which both sexes are properly 

 horned, the ewes are very liable to be hornless. In 

 these same sheep, as I have been informed by a trust- 

 \vorthy witness who purposely inspected a flock during 

 the lambing-season, the horns at birth are generally 

 more fully developed in the male than in the female. 

 With the adult musk-ox (^Ovihos moschatus) the horns of 

 the male are larger than those of the female, and in the 

 latter the bases do not touch.^^ In regard to ordinary 

 cattle Mr. Blyth remarks : *' In most of the wdld bovine 

 ** animals the horns are both longer and thicker in the 

 " bull than in the cow, and in the cow-banteng (Bos 

 " sondaicus) the horns are remarkably small, and in- 

 " clined much backwards. In the domestic races of 

 " cattle, both of the humped and humpless types, the 

 " horns are short and thick in the bull, longer and 

 " more slender in the cow and ox ; and in the Indian 

 '' buffalo, they are shorter and thicker in the bull, longer 

 " and more slender in the cow. In the wild gaour 

 *' (B. gaurus) the horns are mostly both longer and 

 " thicker in the bull than in the cow." ^^ Hence with 

 most sheath-horned ruminants the horns of the male 

 are either longer or stronger than those of the female. 

 With the Bhinoceros simus, as I may here add, the 

 horns of the female are generally longer but less power- 

 ful than in the male ; and in some other species of 



^^ Richardson, ' Fauna Bor. Americana,' p. 278. 

 1* • Land and Water,' 1867, p. 846. 



