MAMMALS— GREATER SIZE OP MALE. 



513 



Mr. McNeill, of Colonsay, concludes that "the males do not at- 

 "tain their full growth till over two years old, though the fe- 

 "males attain it sooner." According to Mr. Cupples' experience, 

 male dogs go on growing in stature till they are from twelve to 

 eighteen months old, and in weight till from eighteen to twenty- 

 four months old; whilst the females cease increasing in stature 

 at the age of from nine to fourteen or fifteen months, and in weight 

 at the age of from twelve to fifteen months. From these various 

 statements it is clear that the full difference in size between the 

 male and female Scotch deerhound is not acquired until rather 

 late in life. The males almost exclusively are used for coursing, 

 for, as Mr. McNeill informs me, the females have not sufficient 

 strength and weight to pull down a full-grown deer. From the 

 names used in old legends, it appears, as I hear from Mr. Cup- 

 ples, that, at a very ancient period, the males were the most cele- 

 brated, the females being 

 mentioned only as the moth- 

 ers of famous dogs. Hence, 

 during many generations, it 

 is the male which has been 

 chiefly tested for strength, 

 size, speed, and courage, and 

 the best will have been bred 

 from. As, however, the males 

 do not attain their full dimen- 

 sions until rather late in life, 

 they will have tended, in ac- 

 cordance with the law often 

 indicated, to transmit their 

 characters to their male off- 

 spring alone; and thus the 

 great inequality in size be- 

 tween the sexes of the Scotch deerhounds may probably be ac- 

 counted for. 



The males of some few quadrupeds possess organs or parts 

 developed solely as a means of defense against the attacks of 

 other males. Some kinds of deer use, as we have seen, the upper 

 branches of their horns chiefly or exclusively for defending them- 

 selves; and the Oryx antelope, as I am informed by Mr. Bartlett, 

 fences most skillfully with his long, gently curved horns; but 

 these are likewise used as organs of offense. The same observer 

 remarks that rhinoceroses in fighting, parry each other's sidelong 

 blows with their horns, which clatter loudly together, as do the 

 tusks of boars. Although wild boars fight desperately, they sel- 

 dom, according to Brehm, receive fatal wounds, as the blows fall 

 on each other's tusks, or on the layer of gristly skin covering the 

 shoulder, called by the German hunters, the shield; and here 



34 



Fig. 65. Head of Common wild boar, 

 in prime of life (from Brehm). 



