504 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



her more quiet disposition she does not need this strange kind ol 

 shield so much. 



Each male animal uses his weapons in his own peculiar fashion. 

 The common ram makes a charge and butts with such force with 

 the bases of his horns, that I have seen a powerful man knocked 

 over like a child. Goats and certain species of sheep, for in- 

 stance the Ovis cycloceros of Afghanistan,^^ rear on their hind 

 legs, and then not only butt, but "make a cut down and a jerk up. 

 "with the ribbed front of their scimitar-shaped horn, as with a 

 "saber. When the O. cycloceros attacked a large domestic ram, 

 "who was a noted bruiser, he conquered him by the sheer novelty 

 "of his mode of fighting, always closing at once with his adver- 

 "sary, and catching him across the face and nose with a sharp 

 "drawing jerk of the head, and then bounding out of the way be- 

 "fore the blow could be returned." In Pembrokeshire a male goat, 

 the master of a flock which during several generations had run 

 wild, was known to have killed several males in single combat; 

 this goat possessed enormous horns, measuring thirty-nine inches 

 in a straight line from tip to tip. The common bull, as every one 

 knows, gores and tosses his opponent; but 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 — an instinct which the common Dull does not possess.-^' 

 Hence a dog who pins a buffalo by the nose is immediately crush- 

 ed. We must, however, remember that the Italian buffalo has been 

 long domesticated, and it is by no means certain that the 

 wild parent-form had similar horns. Mr. Bartlett informs me 

 that when a female Cape buffalo (Bubalus caffer) was turned into 

 an enclosure with a bull of the same species, she attacked him, and 

 he in return pushed her about with great violence. But it was 

 manifest to Mr. Bartlett that, had not the bull shown dignified 

 forbearance, he could easily have killed her by a single lateral 

 thrust with his immense horns. The giraffe uses his short hair- 

 covered horns, which are rather longer in the male than In the 

 female, in a curious manner; for, with his long neck, he swings his 

 head to either side, almost upside down, with such force, that I 

 have seen a hard plank deeply indented by a single blow. 



With antelopes it is sometimes difiicult to imagine how they can 

 possibly use their curiously-shaped horns; thus the spring-boo 

 (Ant. euchore) has rather short upright horns, with the sharp 

 points bent inwards almost at right angles, so as to face each 



22 Mr. Blyth, In 'Land and Water,' March, 1867, p. 134, on the au- 

 thority of Capt. Hutton and others. For the wild Pembrokeshire 

 goats, see the 'Field,' 1869, p. 150. 



23 M. E. M. Bailly, 'Sur 1' usage des Cornes,' &c., 'Annal. des So. 

 Nat.' torn. ii. 1824, p. 369. 



