568 ZOOLOGY. 



Darwin calls attention to the fact that in mammals the male 

 wins the female rather by the law of battle than by the dis- 

 play of high colors and attractive ornaments. During the 

 breeding season, desperate contests take place between the 

 rival males ; even the males of the timid hare will at such 

 times fight until the weaker is killed ; so moles, squirrels, 

 horses, male seals and male sperm-whales, whose heads are 

 larger than in the female, and beavers, will fight desperately. 

 It is a rule that the males of such animals as are provided 

 with tusks or horns always fight for the possession of the 

 female. It is so with bulls, deer, elephants, boars, and rams ; 

 at the same time these are organs of defence by which the 

 males protect their family, flock, or herd. On the other 

 hand, in the female rhinoceros, some antelopes, the reindeer, 

 as opposed to the other deer, some sheep and goats, etc., the 

 horns are nearly as well developed as in the opposite sex. 

 The modes of attack are various : the ram charges and 

 butts with the base of his horns, the domestic bull gores 

 and tosses any troublesome enemy, while the Italian buffalo 

 " is said never to use his horns ; he gives a tremendous blow 

 with his convex forehead, and then tramples on his fallen 

 enemy with his knees." Darwin also says that male quad- 

 rupeds with tusks use them in a variety of ways ; thus the 

 boar " strikes laterally and upward, the musk-deer with 

 serious effect downward," while the walrus can strike either 

 upward, downward, or sideways with equal dexterity. 



The males are usually larger when there is any difference 

 in size ; this is seen in the eared seals, especially CallorJiinus 

 ursinus, in the ox, Indian buffalo, and the American bison, 

 as well as the lion. The mane of the latter adds to its ap- 

 pearance of greater weight and bulk, and Darwin says that 

 the lion's mane "forms a good defence against the one 

 danger to which he is liable— namely, the attacks of rival 

 lions." As regards distinctions in color, male ruminants 

 are most liable to exhibit them. In the Derbyan eland the 

 body is redder, the neck much blacker, and the white band 

 separating these colors broader than in the females. In the 

 Cape eland the male is slightly darker than the female. In 

 the Indian black-buck the male is very dark, almost black. 



