228 SEXUAJ, SELECTION: MAMMALS. TPart XL 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Secondary Sexual Characters of Mammals. 



The Law of Battle. — Special "Weapons, confined to the Males. — Cause of 

 Absence of Weapons in the Female. — "Weapons common to both 

 Sexes, yet primarily acquired by the Male. — Other Uses of such Weap- 

 ons. — Their High Importance. — Greater Size of the Male. — Means of 

 Defence. — On the Preference shown by either Sex in the Pairing of 

 Quadrupeds. 



With mammals the male appears to win the female 

 much more through the law of battle than through the 

 display of his charms. The most timid animals, not pro- 

 vided with any special weapons for fighting, engage in 

 desperate conflicts during the season of love. Two male 

 hares have been seen to fight together until one was 

 killed ; male moles often fight, and sometimes with fatal 

 results ; male squirrels " engage in frequent contests, and 

 often wound each other severely ; " as do male beavers, so 

 that "hardly a skin is without scars." 1 I observed the 

 same fact with the hides of the guanacoes in Patagonia ; 

 and on one occasion several were so absorbed in fighting 

 that they fearlessly rushed close by me. Livingstone 

 speaks of the males of the many animals in Southern 



1 See Waterton's account of two hares fighting, 'Zoologist,' vol. i. 

 1843, p. 211. On moles, Bell, 'Hist, of British Quadrupeds,' 1st edit, 

 p. 100. On squirrels, Audubon and Bachman, 'Viviparous Quadrupeds 

 of North America,' 1846, p. 269. On beavers, Mr. A. H. Green, in ' Jour 

 nal of Lin. Soc. Zoolog.' vol. x. 1869, p. 362. 



