SZ THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



It soon becomes apparent that this interpretation 

 must fail. In the first place, if it were true, the females 

 should be similarly armed. In the second, in the presence 

 of many of their enemies they are useless. The Cape 

 hunting-dog, for example, is more than a match for any 

 antelope. This ferocious animal kills his victim by 

 running it down, persistently tearing at its flanks, until 

 at last the entrails protrude and the horrid chase is ended. 

 Furthermore, the horns are a comparatively late acquire- 

 ment of the species, as is shown in the case of the Deer • 

 for the earliest known fossil species were hornless. That 

 the females among the Oxen and many of the Antelopes 

 possess horns is an interesting fact, but it can only be 

 regarded as another instance of a character first acquired 

 by the male and later, in successive generations, transferred 

 to the female. And it is to be noticed that this trans- 

 ference is never found save in the cases where the character 

 in question has attained its maximum in the male. The 

 transference of weapons to the female is the more remark- 

 able because there is no evidence that they play any 

 part in the struggle for existence, either in securing mates 

 or in warding off the attacks of enemies. Moreover, 

 these weapons in the female may exceed those of the 

 male, in length, though they are never so massive. They 

 are to be regarded solely in the light of ornaments. There 

 are few more striking instances indeed where the purely 

 ornamental and the strictly utiUtarian are so closely 



associated. 



f 



Attention may now profitably be turned to the 

 behaviour of these interesting tribes when under the 

 alluring influences of love. 



Tradition and the poets have contrived to persuade us 



