COLORATION OF GAME ANIMALS. 63 



different forms and shapes cannot be the best possible defensive weapon with which 

 it is possible to equip its possessor. Nor can each one be most peculiarly adapted to 

 the animal's mode of life. 



Take a gnu, a hartebeest, and a Grant's gazelle, living side by side on the same 

 plain. Could anything be more diverse than the shape of their horns, while the mode 

 of life of all is much the same ? 



A few horns form good weapons of offence, but most of them are clumsy and 

 useless for either attack or defence, nor are they ever used by most game as offensive 

 weapons except strictly for warfare inter se. This strife between males is, as a rule, 

 clumsy in the extreme — a mere butting of foreheads together and pushing till one 

 animal gives best and runs away. Sometimes a pugnacious animal like a roan may 

 inflict a bad wound, but this is the exception rather than the rule. This strife is 

 always of a ponderous nature, and is of no value in fitting an animal to tackle a 

 formidable beast like a lion, leopard, or cheetah. Females, on the contrary, are much 

 quicker and handier with their horns in tackling a beast when they are run down, or in 

 defence of their young. 



Amongst bush animals the form and shape of the horns has probably been 

 influenced to a certain degree by the necessity for protecting head and flanks when 

 passing through thick undergrowth. Another thing which has influenced their shape 

 to some extent is the necessity that they should not be too deadly in inter-male strife. 

 For it cannot be an advantage to a species if the majority of its males kill each 

 other. On the other hand, a few casualties in this way tends to the improvement of 

 the general standard. The fact that one-horned or abnormal-horned males so often 

 get the run of a large number of females seems to suggest what poor weapons they 

 really are and how easily they may be improved on for offensive purposes. In the 

 main, it is probable that horns are almost purely sexual ornaments in most of their 

 present shapes, though their origin was probably in some way for defensive purposes. 



One interesting point about horns is that their shape is such a good indication of 

 specific difference or relationship. The exact species, and often sub-species, of most 

 animals can be told by looking at the horn alone, and in many cases the horn is 

 about the only outward sign of sub-specific variation. In cases where animals have 

 interbred traces of both parents are almost always to be found in the horns. The 

 horns of Neumann's hartebeest are almost exactly half-way between those of Coke's 

 and Jackson's. These two latter species extend over wide areas, and are separated 

 only by a narrow belt of Neumann's. On this border-line Neumann's are frequently 

 seen consorting with herds of both species, and hybrids are from time to time 

 reported. The coat of Neumann's is neither the richer colour of the one nor the 



