Chap VIII.] SEXUAL SELECTION. 259 



the mare. The wild-boar, in his great tusks and some 

 other characters, presents well-marked sexual characters ; 

 in Europe and in India he leads a solitary life, except dur- 

 ing the breeding-season ; but at this season he consorts 

 in India with several females, as Sir W. Elliot, who has 

 had large experience in observing this animal, believes : 

 whether this holds good in Europe is doubtful, but is sup- 

 ported by some statements. The adult male Indian ele- 

 phant, like the boar, passes much of his time in solitude ; 

 but when associating with others, " it is rare to find," as 

 Dr. Campbell states, " more than one male with a whole 

 herd of females." The larger males expel or kill the 

 smaller and weaker ones. The male differs from the fe- 

 male by his immense tusks and greater size, strength, and 

 endurance ; so great is the difference in these latter re- 

 spects, that the males when caught are valued at twenty 

 per cent, above the females. 7 With other pachydermatous 

 animals the sexes differ very little or not at all, and they 

 are not, as far as known, polygamists. Hardly a single 

 species among the Cheiroptera and Edentata, or in the 

 great Orders of the Rodents and Insectivora, presents 

 well-developed secondary sexual differences; and I can 

 find no account of any species being polygamous, except- 

 ing, perhaps, the common rat, the males of which, as some 

 rat-catchers affirm, live with several females. 



The lion in South Africa, as I hear from Sir Andrew 

 Smith, sometimes lives with a single female, but gener- 

 ally with more than one, and, in one case, was found with 

 as many as five females, so that he is polygamous. He is, 

 as far as I can discover, the sole polygamist in the whole 

 group of the terrestrial Carnivora, and he alone presents 

 well-marked sexual characters. If, however, we turn to 



7 Dr. Campbell, in ' Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1869, p. 138. See also an 

 interesting paper, by Lieut. Johnstone, in ' Proc. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal/ 

 May, 1868 



