286 SEXUAL SELECTION : MAMMALS. [Pakt it 



scent-glands, and there can be little doubt, from the man- 

 ner in which their bodies are rejected by birds and beasts 

 of prey, that their odor is protective ; nevertheless, the 

 glands become enlarged in the males during the breeding- 

 season. In many quadrupeds the glands are of the same 

 size in both sexes ; 9 but their use is not known, In other 

 species the glands are confined to the males, or are more 

 developed in them than in the females ; and they almost 

 always become more active during the rutting-season. 

 At this period the glands on the sides of the face of the 

 male elephant enlarge and emit a secretion having a strong 

 musky odor. 



The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known, 

 and that of certain male deer is wonderfully strong and 

 persistent. On the banks of the Plata I have perceived 

 the whole air tainted with the odor of the male Cervus 

 campestris, at the distance of half a mile to the leeward 

 of a herd ; and a silk handkerchief, in which I carried home 

 a skin, though repeatedly used and washed, retained, 

 when first unfolded, traces of the odor for one year and 

 seven months. This animal does not emit its strong odor 

 until more than a year old, and if castrated while young 

 never emits it. 10 Besides the general odor, with which 

 the whole body of certain ruminants appears to be perme- 

 ated during the breeding-season, many deer, antelopes, 

 sheep, and goats, possess odoriferous glands in various 

 situations, more especially on their faces. The so-called 



9 As with the castoreum of the beaver, see Mr. L. H. Morgan's most 

 interesting work, ' The American Beaver,' 1868, p. 300. Pallas (' Spic. 

 Zoolog.' fasc. viii. 1779, p. 23) has well discussed the odoriferous gland9 

 of mammals. Owen ('Anat. of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 634) also gives 

 an account of these glands, including those of the elephant, and (p. 763) 

 those of shrew-mice. 



10 Rengger, ' Naturgeschichte der Saugethiere von Paraguay,' 1830, s. 

 355. This observer also gives some curious particulars in regard to the 

 odor emitted. 



