Chap. XVII. Mammals — Means of Defence. 521 



provided with weapons, and as we have just seen with means of 

 defence, these weapons seem to have been acquired within a 

 rather late geological period. Dr. Forsyth Major specifies 41 

 several miocene species, in none of which do the tusks appear 

 to have been largely developed in the males ; and Prof. Kutimeye* 

 was formerly struck with this same fact. 



The mane of the lion forms a good defence against the attacks 

 of rival lions, the one danger to which he is liable; for the 

 males, as Sir A. Smith informs me, engage in terrible battles, 

 and a young lion dares not approach an old one. In 1857 a 

 tiger at Bromwich broke into the cage of a lion and a fearful 

 scene ensued : " the lion's mane saved his neck and head from 

 "' being much injured, but the tiger at last succeeded in ripping 

 " up his belly, and in a few minutes he was dead." 42 The broad 

 ruff round the throat and chin of the Canadian lynx {Felts 

 canadensis) is much longer in the male than in the female; but 

 whether it serves as a defence I do not know. Male seals are 

 well known to fight desperately together, and the males ot 

 certain kinds (Otaria jubata) iZ have great manes, whilst the 

 females have small ones or none. The male baboon of the Cape 

 of Good Hope (Cynocephalus porcarius) has a much longer mane 

 and larger canine teeth than the female ; and the mane probably 

 serves as a protection, for, on asking the keepers in the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, without giving them any clue to my object, 

 whether any of the monkeys especially attacked each other by 

 the nape of the neck, I was answered that this was not the case, 

 except with the above baboon. In the Hamadryas baboon, 

 Ehrenberg compares the mane of the adult male to that of a 

 young lion, whilst in the young of both sexes and in the female 

 the mane is almost absent. 



It appeared to me probable that the immense woolly mane of 

 the male American bison, which reaches almost to the ground, 

 and is much more developed in the males than in the females, 

 served as a protection to them in their terrible battles ; but an 

 experienced hunter told Judge Caton that he had never observed 

 anything which favoured this belief. The stallion has a thicker 

 and fuller mane than the mare; and I have made particular 

 inquiries of two great trainers and breeders* who have had charge 

 of many entire horses, and am assured that they "invariably 



41 ' Atti della Soc. Italiana di Sc. 43 Dr. Murie, on Otaria, ' Proc. 

 Nat.' 1873, vol. xv. fasc. iv. Zoolog. Soc.' 1869, p. 109. Mr. J. 



42 'The Times,' Nov. 10th, 1857. A. Allen, in the paper above quoted 

 In regard to the Canada lynx, see (p. 75), doubts whether the hair, 

 Audubon and Bachman, ' Quad- which is longer on the neck in the 

 rupeds of N. America,' 1846, p. male than in the female, deserves to 



39. be called a mane. 



