Notes, iii. 2. ■ ■ . 189 



because they have a kind of projection which as it were simulates a horn." This is 

 a reference to Herodot. ii, 74, and the snake in question was doubtless the Cerastes of 

 Egypt. 



2. i.e. Carnivora, Rodentia, Insectivora, Cheiroptera, as well as man, apes, and 

 elephants ; in fact all Mammalia known to A. excepting Ruminantia, Solidungula, and 

 Cetacea. 



3. Meaning the Indian Ass. Cf. Note 10. 



4. And therefore, he implies, might be expected to have horns, like most cloven-hoofed 

 animals. 



5. It is somewhat astounding to find so determined a teleologist suddenly declaring 

 that antlers are not merely useless but actually injurious to stags. A modem writer 

 however {Bailly, Sur Pusage des cornes, Ann. d. Sc. Nat. ii. 371) has come to the 

 same conclusion: "Quant aux bois du cerf, du renne, de I'elan, on sait qu'ils sont plus 

 nuisibles qu'utiles." The horns are however riot so utterly useless as is here supposed, 

 the upper antlers serving in defence, the brow antlers in attack {Desc. of Man, 

 ii. 253). Still, as Darwin points out, the large branching horns do present a difficulty. 

 For a straight point would inflict a much more serious wound than several diverging 

 ones. Their great size and branching serve however as ornaments, and so give an 

 advantage in the sexual struggle. 



6. The Bubalus must not be confounded with the Bos Bubalus or Buffalo, which was 

 known to A. under the name of the wild ox of the Arachotse {H. A. i. 21). His Bubalus 

 or Bubalis, as he elsewhere calls it, is always mentioned by him in company with deer, 

 antelopes, and the like. It is mentioned in like association by Herodotus (iv. 192), who 

 enumerates it among the animals of Libya ; and by Pliny it is said to be something like 

 a calf or deer [^Nat. Hist. viii. 15). From these insufficient data it is taken to be the 

 Antelope bubalis, or hartbeeste of Africa. 



The Dorcas that had horns like those of the Hippelaphus or nylghau {H. A. ii. i, 22), 

 that was the smallest known animal with horns, and that was an inhabitant of Africa 

 {Herod, iv. 192), is probably the gazelle, and I have so rendered it. The gazelles are by 

 no means cowardly. They fly of course from lions and panthers, of which they form 

 the chief prey, but "the flock when brought to bay defend themselves with courage and 

 obstinacy, uniting in a close circle with the females and fawns in the centre, and pra- 

 senjting their horns at all points to the enemy." 



7. The Bonasus {H. A. ix. 45) is universally admitted to be the aurochs or European 

 bison, the Bison jubatus of Pliny, which in the present day is almost extinct, existing 



• only in Lithuania and in the Caucasus, but which in ancient times abounded in the 

 forests of Europe generally. A. speaks of it {H. A. ii. I, 35) as living in his days in 

 Pseonia and Medica, i.e. North Macedonia. There is a fine specimen in the British 

 Museum. The story of the use to which the Bonasus puts its dung is given with more 

 detail elsewhere (//. A. ix. 45, 6). The only conjecture I can make as to the foundation 

 of the statement is that it may have been derived from the aurochs, in its flight, 



' kicking up stones and dirt into the face of its pursuers, just as the giraffe is said to do 

 (cf. Dallas, Animal Kingd. p. 712), and the ostrich. 



8. For instance snakes, hedgehogs, skunks, and, of invertebrata, cuttle-fishes and the 

 beetles known from their habits as Bombardiers. See the account of Brachyurus crepitans 

 given by Kirby and Spence. Mr. Tristram {The Great Sahara, p. 64) describes the 

 houbara or bustard as employing a similar singular mode of defence when hunted with 

 falcons : "As the hawk approaches, the houbara ejects both from the mouth and vent a 

 slimy fluid. A well-trained bird eludes this shower by repeated feints, until the quarry's 



