646 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



CHAPTER XYII 



SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS OF MAMMALS 



The law of battle — Special weapons, coaflned to the males — Cause o£ 

 absence of weapons in the female — "Weapons common to both sexes, 

 yet primarily acquired by the male — Other uses of such weapons — 

 Their high importance — Greater size of the male — Means of defence — 

 On the preference shown by either sex in the pairing of quadrupeds 



WITH mammals the male appears to win the female 

 much more through the law of battle than 

 through the display of his charms. The most 

 timid animals, not provided with any special weapons for 

 figbting, engage in desperate conflicts during the season of 

 love. Two male hares have been seen to fight together 

 until one was killed; male moles often fight, and some- 

 times with fatal results; male squirrels engage in frequent 

 contests, "and often wound each other severely"; as do 

 male beavers, so that "hardly a skin is without scars."' 

 I observed the same fact with the hides of the guanacos in 

 Patagonia; and on one occasion several were so absorbed 

 in fighting that they fearlessly rushed close by me. Living- 

 stone speaks of the males of the many animals in Southern 

 Africa as almost invariably showing the scars received in 

 former contests. 



The law of battle prevails with aquatic as with terres- 

 trial mammals. It is notorious how desperately male seals 

 fight, both with their teeth and claws, during the breeding 



' See Waterton's account of two hares fighting, "Zoologist," vol. i., 1843, 

 p. 211. On moles, Bell, "Hist, of British Quadrupeds," first edit. p. 100. On 

 squirrels, Audubon and Bachman, "Viviparous Quadrupeds of N. America," 

 1846, p. 269. On beavers, Mr. A. H. Green, in "Journal of Lin. Soc. Zoolog.," 

 vol. X., 1869, p. 362. 



