508 The Descent cf Man. Part [J. 



the wild goat (Capra xgagrus) of the Himalayas and, as it is also 

 said, with the ibex, namely, that when the male accidentally falls 

 from a height he bends inwards his head, and by alighting on 

 his massive horns breaks the shock. The female cannot thus 

 use her horns, which are smaller, but from her more quiet 

 disposition she does not need this strange kind of shield so 

 much. 



Each male animal uses his weapons in his own peculiar 

 fashion. The common ram makes a charge and butts with 

 such force with the bases of his horns, that I have seen a power- 

 ful man knocked over like a child. Goats and certain species of 

 sheep, for instance the Ovis cydoceros of Afghanistan, 22 rear on 

 their hind legs, and then not only butt, but " make a cut down 

 " and a jerk up, with the ribbed front of their scimitar-shaped 

 " horn, as with a sabre. When the 0. cycloceros attacked a large 

 " domestic ram, who was a noted bruiser, he conquered him by 

 " the sheer novelty of his mode of fighting, always closing at 

 " once with his adversary, and catching him across the face and 

 " nose with a sharp drawing jerk of the head, and then bounding 

 " out of the way before the blow could be returned." In 

 Pembrokeshire a male goat, the master of a flock which during 

 several generations had run wild, was known to have killed several 

 males in single combat ; this goat possessed enormous horns, 

 measuring thirty-nine inches in a straight line from tip to 

 tip. The common bull, as every one knows, gores and tosses his 

 opponent ; but the Italian buffalo is said never to use his horns, 

 he gives a tremendous blow with his convex forehead, and then 

 tramples on his fallen enemy with his knees — an instinct which 

 the common bull does not possess. 23 Hence a dog who pins a 

 buffalo by the nose is immediately crushed. We must, however, 

 remember that the Italian buffalo has been long domesticated, 

 and it is by no means certain that the wild parent-form had 

 similar horns. Mr. Bartlett informs me that when a female 

 Cape buffalo {Bubal us caffer) was turned into an enclosure 

 with a bull of the same species, she attacked him, and he in 

 return pushed her about with great violence. But it was 

 manifest to Mr. Bartlett that, had not the bull shewn dignified 

 forbearance, he could easily have killed her by a single lateral 

 thrust with his immense horns. The giraffe uses his short 

 hair-covered horns, which are rather longer in the male than 

 in the female, in a curious manner ; for, with his long neck, he 

 swings his head to either side, almost upside down, with such 



82 Mr. Blyth, in ' Land and goats see the ' Field,' 1869, p. 150. 

 Water,' March, 1867, p. 134, on 23 M. E. M. Bailly, <Sur l'usage 



the authority of Capt. Hutton and des Comes,' &c, ' Annal. des Sc. 



others. For the wild Pembrokeshire Nat.' torn. ii. 1824, p. 369. 



