500 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



velopment, as we see in old or diseased females." Moreover the fe- 

 males of some other species of deer exhibit, either normally or 

 occasionally, rudiments of horns; thus the female of Cervulus mos- 

 chatus has "bristly tufts, ending in a knob, instead of a horn;" 

 and "in most specimens of the female wapiti (Cervus canadensis) 

 "there is a sharp bony protuberance in the place of the horn.""" 

 From these several considerations we may conclude that the pos- 

 session of fairly well-developed horns by the female reindeer, is 

 due to the males having first acquired them as weapons for fight- 

 ing with other males; and secondarily to their development from 

 some unknown cause at an unusually early age in the males, and 

 their consequent transference to both sexes. 



Turning to the sheath-horned ruminants: with antelopes a 

 graduated series can be formed, beginning with species, the fe- 

 males of which are completely destitute of horns — passing on to 

 those which have horns so small as to be amost rudimentary, (as 

 with the Antilocapra americana, in which species they are present 

 in only one out of four or five females^') — to those which have 

 fairly developed horns, but manifestly smaller and thinner than 

 in the male and sometimes of a different shape,^- — and ending 

 with those in which both sexes have horns of equal size. As with 

 the reindeer, so with antelopes there exists, as previously shown, 

 a relation between the period of the development of the horns 

 and their transmission to one or both sexes; it is there- 

 fore probable that their presence or absence in the 

 females of some species, and their more or less perfect 

 condition in the females of other species, depends, not 

 on their being of any special use, but simply in inheritance. 

 It accords with this view that even in the same restricted genus 

 both sexes of some species, and the males alone of others, are 

 thus provided. It is also a remarkable fact that, although the 

 females of Antilope bezoartica are normally destitute of horns, 



Isidore Geoffiroy St. Hilaire, 'Essais de Zoolog-. Generate,' 1841, p. 

 513. Other masculine characters, besides the horns, are sometimes 

 similarly transferred to the female; thus Mr. Boner, in speaking of an 

 old female chamois ('Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Ba- 

 varia,' 1860, 2nd edit. p. 363), says, "not only was the head very male- 

 "looking, but along the back there was a ridge of long hair, usually 

 "to be found only in bucks." 



1" On the Cervulus, Dr. Gray, 'Catalogue of Mammalia in the Brit- 

 ish Museum,' part. lii. p. 220. On the Cervus canadensis or wapiti, see 

 Hon. J. D. Caton, 'Ottawa Acad, of Nat. Sciences,' May, 1868, p. 9. 



" I am indebted to Dr. Canfleld, for this information, see also his 

 paper in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc' 1866, p. 105. 



'2 For instance the horns of the female Ant. euohore resemble those 

 of a distinct species, viz. the Aat. dorcas var. Corine, see Desraarest, 

 'Mammalogie,' p. 455. 



