68 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



the Rocky-Mountain Goat it forms a great bare cushion 

 behind the horns. All have more or less well-developed 

 glands seated in the skin between the toes. But, wherever 

 placed, the secretions thereof are more or less completely 

 suspended save during the breeding season, when they 

 are poured forth abundantly. The precise role they play 

 is by no means certainly known. It seems reasonable 

 to suppose that, in the first place, the odour they dis- 

 perse enables the males to announce their whereabouts 

 to the females seeking mates, should they fail to hear 

 their bellowing. But the antelopes, for the most part, 

 unlike deer, do not, the year round, lose touch with one 

 another ; so that it must be concluded that these odours 

 serve as excitants to the act of pairing, and we know 

 that the sense of smell plays a very important part at this 

 time, which, so far as these animals are concerned, is the 

 only period which comes more or less exactly within the 

 meaning of the term " courtship." ' 



That scent among the antelopes holds a really im- 

 portant place is shown by the fact that the bull of the 

 common Eland intensifies his natural odours by mic- 

 turating upon the mass of long hair which grows upon 

 the forehead. To do this the head is bent down and 

 turned tailwards, in order that the tuft should receive its 

 due urinary spray ! And goats in captivity exhibit the 

 same curious habit. In them, indeed, it is often pushed 

 to such an excess that blindness results, so that the animal 

 has to be slaughtered. 



While in many cases these odours are imperceptible 

 to human nostrils, in others this is far from being the 

 case. Among the ruminants the goat is particularly 

 odorous. So also are the giraffe and the water-buck, 

 both of which may be detected by their smell at con- 



