SEXUAL SELECTION 647 



season; and their hides are likewise often covered with 

 scars. Male sperm-whales are very jealous at this season; 

 and in their battles "they often lock their jaws together, and 

 turn on their sides and twist aboat"; so that their lower 

 jaws often become distorted." 



All male animals which are furnished with special 

 weapons for fighting are well known to engage in fierce 

 battles. The courage and the desperate conflicts of stags 

 have often been described; their skeletons have been found 

 in various parts of the world with the horns inextricably 

 looked together, showing how miserably the victor and 

 vanquished had perished.' N"o animal in the world is so 

 dangerous as an elephant in must. Lord Tankerville has 

 given me a graphic description of the battles between the 

 wild bulls in Chillingham Park, the descendants, degener- 

 ated in size but not in courage, of the gigantic 5os ^r^■»l^- 

 genius. In 1861 several contended for mastery ; and it was 

 observed that two of the younger bulls attacked in concert 

 the old leader of the herd, overthrew and disabled him, so 

 that he was believed by the keepers to be lying mortally 

 wounded in a neighboring wood. But a few days afterward 

 one of the young bulls approached the wood alone, and 

 then the "monarch of the chase," who had been lashing 

 himself up for vengeance, came out, and in a short time 

 killed his antagonist. He then quietly joined the herd, and 

 long held undisputed sway. Admiral Sir J. B. Sulivaa 

 informs me that when he lived in the Falkland Islands, 

 he imported a young English stallion, which frequented 

 the hills near Port William with eight mares. On these 

 hills there were two wild stallions, each with a small troop 



» On the battles of seals, see Capt. 0. Abbott in "Proc. ZooL Soc," 1868, 

 p. 191; also Mr. B. Brown, Ibid., 1868, p. 436; also L. Lloyd, "Game Birds 

 of Sweden," 1867, p. 412; also Pennant. On the sperm-whale, see Mr. J. H. 

 Thompson, in "Proc. ZooL Soc.," 1867, p. 246. 



* See Scrope("Art of Deer-stalking, " p. 17) on the locking of the horns 

 with the Cervua elaphus. Richardson, in "Fauna Bor. Americana," 1829, 

 p. 252, says that the wapiti, moose, and reindeer have been found thus locked 

 together. Sir A. Smith found at the Cape of Gkxid Hope the skeletons of two 

 gnus in the same condition. 



