250 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAMMALS. Part II. 



" mode of fighting, always closing at once with his 

 " adversary, and catchins: him across the face and nose 

 "with a sharp drawing jerk of his head, and then 

 " bounding out of the way before the blow could be 

 " returned." In Pembrokeshire a male goat, the master 

 of a flock which during several generations had- run 

 wild, was known to have killed several other males in 

 single combat; this goat possessed enormous horns, 

 measuring 39 inches in a straight line from tip to tip. 

 The common bull, as every one knows, gores and tosses 

 his opponent; but the Italian buffalo is said never to 

 use his horns, he gives a tremendous blow with his 

 convex forehead, and then tramples on his fallen enemy 

 with his knees — an instinct which the common bull does 

 not possess. ^^ Hence a dog who pins a buffalo by 

 the nose is immediately crushed. We must, however, 

 remember that the Italian buffalo has long been domes- 

 ticated, and it is by no means certain that the Avild 

 parent-form had similarly shaped horns. Mr. Bartlett 

 informs me that when a female Cape buffalo {Bubalus 

 coffer) was turned into an enclosure Avith a bull of 

 the same species, she attacked him, and he in return 

 pushed her about with great violence. But it was 

 manifest to Mr. Bartlett that had not the bull she\Yn 

 dignified forbearance, he could easily have killed her 

 by a single lateral thrust with his immense horns. The 

 giraffe uses his short hair-covered horns, which are 

 rather longer in the male than in the female, in a 

 curious manner ; for w^ith his long neck he swings his 

 head to either side, almost upside down, with such 

 force, that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented 

 by a single blow. 



i» M. E. M. Bailly, " sur I'usage des Comes," &c., ' Annal. des Sc. 

 Nat.' torn. ii. 1824, p. 369. 



