8 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



protuberances of some sort ; and in the ances- 

 tral deer these protuberances took the shape 

 of bony projections on the forehead. Again, 

 those deer which had the most marked and 

 most pointed projections would best vanquish 

 their rivals, and so fare best in the struggle 

 for the hinds. Their descendants would in- 

 herit their peculiarities with more or less 

 variation ; and would similarly be selected by 

 the law of battle in accordance with their 

 fighting powers and the fitness of their 

 weapons. 



Now this probability, set forth a priori by 

 Mr. Darwin, exactly tallies with the geological 

 record, as interpreted by M. Gaudry and 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins. The very vague 

 and unspecialised deer of the lower miocene 

 period had no antlers at all : they were some- 

 what like musk-deer without the tusks, or 

 like young fawns in their first summer. But 

 in the mid miocene, antlers make their first 

 appearance as mere short pointed knobs ; 

 next, they develop a single side tine ; and in 



