MAMMALS. 585 



doubtedly, the first spike-hom buck was merely an acci- 

 dental freak of nature. But his spike-horns gave him an 

 advantage, and enabled him to propagate his peculiarity. 

 His descendants, having a like advantage, have propagated 

 the peculiarity in a constantly increasing ratio, till they are 

 slowly crowding the antlered deer from the region they 

 inhabit.^' A critic has well objected to this account by 

 asking, why, if the simple horns are now so advantageous, 

 were the branched antlers of the parent-form ever devel- 

 oped? To this I can only answer by remarking that a new 

 mode of attack with new weapons might be a great advant- 

 age, as shown by the case of the Ovis cycloceros, who thus 

 conquered a domestic ram famous for his fighting power. 

 Though the branched antlers of a stag are well adapted for 

 fighting with his rivals, and, though it might be an 

 advantage to the prong-horned variety slowly to acquire 

 long and branched horns, if he had to fight only with 

 others of the same kind, yet it by no means follows that 

 branched horns would be the best fitted for conquering a 

 foe differently armed. In the foregoing case of the Oryx 

 leucoryx it is almost certain that the victory would rest 

 with an antelope having short horns, and who, therefore, 

 did not need to kneel down, though an oryx might profit 

 by having still longer horns if he fought only with his 

 proper rivals. 



Male quadrupeds, which are furnished with tusks, use 

 them in various ways, as in the case of horns. The boar 

 strikes laterally and upward ; the musk-deer downward 

 with serious effect.* The walrus, though having so short 

 a neck and so unwieldly a body, '^ can strike either upward 

 or downward or sideways with equal dexterity, "f I was 

 informed by the late Dr. Falconer, that the Indian elephant 

 fights in a different manner according to the position and 

 curvature of his tusks. When they are directed forward 

 and upward he is able to fling a tiger to a great distance 

 it is said to even thirty feet; when they are short and 

 turned doVnward he endeavors suddenly to pin the tiger to 

 the ground, and, in consequence, is dangerous to the rider, 

 who is liable to be jerked oft' the howdali.J 



Pallas, " Spicilegia Zoologica," fasc. xiii, 1779, p. 18. 



f Lamont, " Seasons with the Sea-Horses," 1861, p. 141. 



^See also Corse (" Philosopli. Transact.," 1799, p. 212) on the 



