516 I'HB DESCENT OF MAW. 



But the wart-hog is not destitute of other special means of pro- 

 tection, for it has, on each side of the face, beneath the eyes, a 

 rather stiff, yet flexible, cartilaginous, oblong pad (fig. 67), which 

 projects two or three inches outwards; and it appeared to Mr. 

 Bartlett and myself, when viewing the living animal, that these 

 pads, when struck from beneath by the tusks of an opponent, 

 would be turned upwards, and would thus admirably protect the 

 somewhat prominent eyes. I may add, on the authority of Mr. 

 Bartlett that these boars when fighting stand directly face to 

 face. 



Lastly, the African river-hog (Potomochoerus penicillatus) has 

 a hard cartilaginous knob on each side of the face beneath the 

 eyes, which answers to the flexible pad of the wart-hog; it has 

 also two bony prominences on the upper jaw above the nostrils. 

 A boar of this species in the Zoological Gardens recently broke 

 into the cage of the wart-hog. They fought all night long, and 

 were found in the morning much exhausted, but not seriously 

 wounded. It is a significant fact, as showing the purpose of the 

 above-described projections and excrescences, that these were 

 covered with blood, and were scored and abraded in an extraor- 

 dinary manner. 



Although the males of so many members of the pig family are 

 provided with weapons, and as we have just seen with means ot 

 defense, these weapons seem to have been acquired within a 

 rather late geological period. Dr. Forsyth Major specifies" sev- 

 eral miocene species, in none of which do the tusks appear to 

 have been largely developed in the males; and Prof. Rutimeyer 

 was formerly struck with this same fact. 



The mane of the lion forms a good defense against the attacks 

 of rival lions, the one danger to which he is liable; for the 

 males, as Sir A. Smith informs me, engage in terrible battles, 

 and a young lion dares not approach an old one. In 1857 a 

 tiger at Bromwich broke into the cage of a lion and a fearful 

 scene ensued: "the lion's mane saved his neck and head from 

 "being much injured, but the tiger at last succeeded in ripping 

 "up his belly, and in a few minutes he was dead.'"^ The broad 

 ruff round the throat and chin of the Canadian lynx (Pelis 

 canadensis) is much longer in the male than in the female; but 

 whether it serves as a defense I do not know. Male seals are 

 well known to fight desperately together, and the males of cer- 

 tain kinds (Otaria jubata)" have great manes, whilst the females 

 have small ones or none. The male baboon of the Cape of Good 



" 'Atti della Soc. Itallana di Sc. Nat." 1S73, vol. xv. fasc. iv. 

 42 •'£'hQ Times," Nov. 10th, 1S57. In regard to the Canada lynx, see 

 Audubon and Bachman, 'Quadrupeds of N. America,' 1846, p. 39. 

 "Dr. Murie, on Otaria, 'Proo. Zoolog. Soc' 1S69, p. 109. Mr. J. .A. 



