580 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



not possess.* 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 simi- 

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

 Cape buffalo {Bubalus caffer) was turned into an inclosure 

 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 shown 

 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. 



Fig. 63. Oryx leucoryx, male (from the Knowsley Menagerie). 



with his long neck, he swings his head to either side, 

 almost upside down, with such force that I have seen 

 a hard plank deeply indented by a single blow. 



With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine how 

 they can possibly use their curiously shaped horns ; thus 

 the springboc (Ant. eucUore) has rather short upright 

 horns, with the sharp points bent inward, almost at right 

 angles, so as to face each other ; Mr. Bartlett does not 

 know how they are used, but suggests that they would 

 inflict a fearful wound down each side of the face of an 

 antagonist. The slightly curved horns of the Oryx leu- 

 coryx (fig. 63) are directed backward, and are of such 



*M. E. M, Baillv, " Sur I'usage des Comes," etc., " Annal des Sc. 

 Nat.," torn, ii, 1824, p. 369. 



