Chap. XVII. 



LAW OF BATTLE. 



251 



With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine 

 how they can possibly use their curiously- shaped horns ; 

 thus the spring-boc (Ant. euchore) has rather short up- 

 right horns, with the sharp points bent inwards almost 

 at a right angle, so as to face each other ; Mr. Bartlett 

 does not know how they are used, but suggests that 

 they would inflict a fearful wound down each side of 

 the face of an antagonist. The slightly-curved horns of 

 the Oryx leucoryx (fig. 61) are directed backwards, and 

 are of such length that their points reach beyond the 



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Fig. 61. Oryx leucoryx, male (from the Knowsley Menagerie). 



middle of the back, over which they stand in an almost 

 parallel line. Thus they seem singularly ill-fitted for 

 fighting; but Mr. Bartlett informs me that when two 

 of these animals prepare for battle, they kneel down, 

 with their heads between their front legs, and in this 

 attitude the horns stand nearly parallel and close to 

 the ground, with ihe points directed forwards and a 

 little upwards. The combatants then gradually ap- 

 proach each other and endeavour to get the upturned 

 points under each other's bodies; if one succeeds in 



