Chap. XVII.] LAW OF BATTLE. 245 



brush (every hunter knows that does and yearling bucks 

 run much more rapidly than the large bucks when armed 

 with their cumbrous antlers), the spike-horn is a more 

 effective weapon than the common antler. With this 

 advantage the spike-horn bucks are gaining upon the 

 common bucks, and may, in time, entirely supersede them 

 in the Adirondacks. Undoubtedly the first spike-horn 

 buck was merely an accidental 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." 



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 with serious 

 effect downward." The walrus, though having so short a 

 neck and so unwieldy a body, " can strike either upward, 

 or downward, or sideways, with equal dexterity." " The 

 Indian elephant fights, as I was informed by the late Dr. 

 Falconer, in a different manner according to the position 

 and curvature of his tusks. When they are directed for- 

 ward and upward he is able to fling a tiger to a great dis- 

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

 and turned downward he endeavors suddenly to pin the 

 tiger to the ground, and in consequence is dangerous to 

 the rider, who is liable to be jerked off the hoodah." 



Very few male quadrupeds possess weapons of two 

 distinct kinds specially adapted for fighting with rival 

 males. The male muntjac-deer (Cervulus), however, 



** Pallas, 'Spicilegia Zoologica,' fasc. xiii. 17*79, p. 18. 



^^ Lamont, 'Seasons with the Sea-Horses,' 1861, p. 141. 



^^ See also Corse (' Philosoph. Transact.' 1*799, p. 212) on the manner 

 in which the short-tusked Mooknah variety of the elephant attacks other 

 elephants. 



