198 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



may serve partly as ornaments, .... but I 

 have no evidence in favor of this belief." * 



In the evolution of these horns, then, there was first 

 a long rudimentary period, during which they were 

 useless, and during which they could not have been 

 preserved by natural selection ; and after they became 

 useful they were for a long time without prongs and 

 were preserved because they were useful ; after this 

 they branched and became less efficient in battle than 

 they were as simple horns. If " a single point would 

 have been much more dangerous than a branched 

 antler," why did they branch? Certainly not by 

 natural selection, and Mr. Darwin admits that he 

 knows of no evidence in favor of sexual selection. 

 He claims that the spike-horn buck, a variety of Cer- 

 vus Virginianus, is displacing the prong-horned buck 

 of the same species. The former has a horn which 

 " consists of a single spike, more slender than the ant- 

 ler, and scarcely so long, projecting forward from the 

 brow, and terminating in a very sharp point. This 

 horn is more efficient in battle and less impediment in 

 traveling through the woods than the prong-horns. 

 It is known that the great branching horns of the 

 bucks are a serious impediment in thick woods. 



Besides, they are shed every year and renewed in 

 from two to three months. The production of such 

 large appendages is a great demand on the energy of 

 the animal, for which there seems to be no adequate 

 compensation in the way of utility. 



The horns of many antelopes are of such shape and 

 point so much backwards that they are useless in bat- 

 tle, and they cannot therefore have been produced by 

 natural selection. I am inclined to think that this is 

 perhaps true with regard to the horns of most rumi- 

 nants. 



* Descent of Man, "Vol. 2, p. 243. 



