574 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



until April or May, when she brings forth her young. Mr. 

 Crotch made particular inquiries for me in Norway, and it 

 appears that the females at this season conceal themselves 

 for about a fortnight in order to bring forth their young, 

 and then reappear generally hornless. In Nova Scotia, 

 however, as I hear from Mr. H. Reeks, the female some- 

 times retains her horns longer. The male, on the other 

 hand, casts his horns much earlier, toward the end of 

 November. As both sexes have the same requirements and 

 follow the same habits of life, and as the male is destitute 

 of horns during the winter, it is improbable that they can 

 be of any special service to the female during this season, 

 which includes the larger part of the time during which 

 she is horned. Nor is it probable that she can have 

 inherited horns from some ancient progenitor of the family 

 of deer, for, from the fact of the females of so many species 

 in all quarters of the globe not having horns, we may con- 

 clude that this was the primordial character of the group.* 

 The horns of the reindeer are developed at a most 

 unusually early age; but what the cause of this may be is 

 not known. The effect has apparently been the transfer- 

 ence of the horns to both sexes. We should bear in mind 

 that horns are always transmitted through the female, and 

 that she has a latent capacity for their development, as we 

 see in old or diseased females, f Moreover, the females of 

 some other species of deer exhibit either normally or occa- 

 sionally rudiments of horns; thus the female of Cervulus 

 inoschatus has " bristly tufts, ending in a knob instead of 

 a horn;" and "in most specimens of the female wapiti 

 ( Cervus canadensis) there is a sharp, bony protuberance in 

 the place of the horn." From these several considera- 



*0n the structure and shedding of the horns of the reindeer, 

 Hoffberg, " Amcenitates Acad.," vol. iv, 1788, p. 149. See Richard- 

 son, "Fauna Bor. Americana," p. 241, in regard to the American 

 variety or species; also Maj. W. Ross King, " The Sportsman in 

 Canada,' 1866, p. 80. 



f Isidore Geoffroy St. H'laire, "Essais de Zoolog. Generate," 1841, 

 p. 513. Other masculine characters besides the horns, are sometimes 

 similarly transferred to the female; thus Mr. Boner, in speaking of 

 /tn old female chamois ("Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of 

 Bavaria," 1860, 2nd edit., p. 363) says, "not only was the head very 

 male- looking, but along the back there was a ridge of long hair, 

 usually to be found only in bucks." 



JOu the Cervulus, Dr. Gray, "Catalogue of Mammalia in the 



