iio TJie Descent of Man. I'akt 11, 



horns forward, lie would generally be under a great disadvantage 

 when attacked by any other animal. It is, therefore, not 

 probable that the horns have been modified into their present 

 great length and p'>cuhar position, as a protection against beasts 

 of prey. We can however see that, as soon as some ancient 

 male progenitor of the Oryx acquired moderately long horns, 

 directed a little backwards, he would be compelled, in his battles 

 with rival males, to bend his head somewhat inwards or down- 

 wards, as is now done by certain stags ; and it is not improbable 

 that he might have acquired the habit of at first occasionally and 

 afterwards of regularly kneeling down. In this case it is almost 

 certain that the males which possessed the longest horns would 

 liave had a great advantage over others with shorter horns ; and 

 tlien the horns would gradually have been rendered longer and 

 longer, through sexual selection, until they acquired their present 

 extraordinary length and position. 



With stags of many kinds the branches of the horns offer a 

 curious case of difficulty; for certainly a single straight point 

 would inflict a much more serious wound than several diverging 

 ones. In Sir Philip Egerton's museum there is a horn of the 

 red-deer {Ctrvus duplms), thirty inches in length, with "not 

 " fewer than fifteen snags or branches;" and at Moritzburg 

 there is still preserved a pair of antlers of a red-deer, shot in 

 1699 by Frederick I., one of which bears the astonishing number 

 of thirty-three branches and the other twenty-seven, making 

 altogether sixty branches. Bichardson figures a pair of antlers 

 of the wild reindeer with twenty-nine points.^ From the 

 manner in which the horns are branched, and more especially 

 from deer being known occasionally to fight together by kicking 

 with their fore-feet,^* M. Bailly actually comes to the conclusion 

 that their horns are more injurious than useful to them ? But 

 this author overlooks the pitched battles between rival males. 

 As I felt much perplexed about the use or advantage of the 

 branches, I applied to Mr. McNeill of Colonsay, who has long 

 and carefully observed the habits of red-deer, and he informs 

 me that he has never seen some of the branches brought into 

 use, but that the brow antlers, from inclining downwards, are a 

 great protection to the forehead, and their points are likewise 



2* On the horns of red-deer, Acad, of Nat. Science,' May, 1868, 



Owen, * British Fossil Mammals,' p. 9), says that the American deer 



1848, p. 478; Richardson oq the fight with their fore-feet, after 



horns of the reindeer, ' Fauna Bor. " the question of suptriority has 



Americana,' 1829, p. 240. I am " been once settled and acitnowledged 



indebted to Prof. Victor Cams, for "in the herd." Bailly, ' Sur I'usagf 



the Moritzhirg case. des Cornes,' 'Annates des Sc. Nat. 



" lion. J. 'D. Cuton ('Ottawa tom. ii. 1824, p. a71. 



