Chap. XVII] LAW OF BATTLE. 247 



which had been partially transferred to the females. The 

 reduction of these teeth in the males seems to have fol- 

 lowed from some change in their manner of fighting, often 

 caused (but not in the case of the horse) by the develop- 

 ment of new weapons. 



Tusks and horns are manifestly of high importance to 

 their possessors, for their development consumes much 

 organized matter. A single tusk of the Asiatic elephant 

 — one of the extinct woolly species — and of the African 

 elephant, have been known to weigh respectively 150, 160, 

 and 180 pounds; and even greater weights have been as- 

 signed by some authors. 29 With deer, in which the horns 

 are periodically renewed, the drain on the constitution 

 must be greater ; the horns, for instance, of the moose 

 weigh from fifty to sixty pounds, and those of the extinct 

 Irish elk from sixty to seventy pounds — the skull of the 

 latter weighing on an average only five and a quarter 

 pounds. With sheep, although the horns are not periodi- 

 cally renewed, yet their development, in the opinion of 

 many agriculturists, entails a sensible loss to the breeder. 

 Stags, moreover, in escaping from beasts of prey, are 

 loaded with an additional weight for the race, and are 

 greatly retarded in passing through a woody country. 

 The moose, for instance, with horns extending five and a 

 half feet from tip to tip, although so skilful in their use 

 that he will not touch or break a* dead twig when walking 

 quietly, cannot act so dexterously while rushing away 

 from a pack of wolves. " During his progress he holds 

 his nose up, so as to lay the horns horizontally back; and 

 in this attitude cannot see the ground distinctly." 30 The 



S9 Emerson Tennent, 'Ceylon,' 1859, vol. ii. p. 275; Owen, 'British 

 Fossil Mammals,' 1846, p. 245. 



80 Richardson, 'Fauna Bor. Americana,' on the moose, Alces palmala, 

 p. 236, 237 ; also, on the expanse of the horns, 'Land and Water,' 1869, 

 p. 143. See also Owen, 'British Fossil Mammals,' on the Irish elk, pp. 

 447, 455. 



