606 THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



cessful in winning the females, and in leaving offspring to 

 inherit their gradually perfected glands and colors. 



Developme7it of the Hair. We have seen that male quad- 

 rupeds often have the hair on their necks and slioulders 

 much more developed than the females; and many addi- 

 tional instances could be given. This sometimes serves as 

 a defense to the male during his battles; but whetiier the 

 hair in most cases has been specially developed for this 

 purpose is very doubtful. We may feel almost certain that 

 this is not the case, when only a thin and narrow crest runs 

 along the back ; for a crest of this kind would afford 

 scarcely any protection, and the ridge of the back is not 

 a place likely to be injured; nevertheless such crests are 

 sometimes confined to the males, or are much more devel- 

 oped in them than in the females. Two antelopes, the 

 Tragelaphus scriptus"^ (see fig. 70, p. 620) and Portax picta 

 may be given as instances. When stags and the males of 

 wild goat are enraged or terrified these crests stand erect ;t 

 but it cannot be supposed that they have been developed 

 merely for the sake of exciting fear in their enemies. One 

 of the above-named antelopes, the Partax picta, has a large, 

 well-defined brush of black hair on the throat, and this is 

 much larger in the male than in the female. In the 

 Ammotragus tragelaphics of N. Africa, a member of the 

 sheep family, the fore legs are almost concealed by an 

 extraordinary growth of hair, which depends from the 

 neck and upper halves of the legs; but Mr. Bartlett does 

 not believe that this mantle is of the least use to the male, 

 in whom it is much more developed than in the female. 



Male quadrupeds of many kinds differ from the females 

 in having more hair, or hair of a dift'erent character, on 

 certain parts of their faces. Thus the bull alone has curled 

 hair on the forehead. X In three closely allied sub-genera 

 of the goat family only the males possess beards, sometimes 

 of large size; in two other sub-genera both sexes have a 



* Dr. Gray, " Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley," pi. 28. 



f Judge Caton on the Wapiti, "Transact. Ottawa Acad. Nat. 

 Sciences," 1868, pp. 36, 40; Blyth, " Land and Water," on Capra 

 cegagrus, 1867, p. 37. 



X '* Hunter's Essays and Observations," edited by Owen, 1861, vol. 

 i, p. 236. 



