SEXUAL SELECTION 657 



from tip to tip. The common bull, as every one knows, 

 gores and tosses his opponent; but the Italian buffalo is 

 said never to use his horns; he gives a tremendous blow 

 with his convex forehead, and then tramples on his fallen 

 enemy with his knees — an instinct which the common bull 

 does not possess." Hence a dog who pins a buffalo by the 

 nose is immediately crushed. We must, however, remem- 

 ber that the Italian buffalo has been long domesticated, and 

 it is by no means certain that the wild parent form had sim- 

 ilar horns. Mr. Bartlett informs me that when a female 

 Cape buffalo {Buhalus caffer) was turned into an inclosure 

 with a bull of the same species, she attacked him, and he 

 in return pushed her about with great violence. But it was 

 manifest to Mr. Bartlett that, had not the bull shown digni- 

 fied forbearance, he could easily have killed her by a single 

 lateral thrust with his immense horns. The giraffe uses his 

 short hair-covered horns, which are rather longer in the male 

 than in the female, in a curious manner; for, with his long 

 neck, he swings his head to either side, almost upside down, 

 with such force that I have seen a hard plank deeply in- 

 dented by a single blow. 



With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine how 

 they can possibly use their curiously shaped horns; thus 

 the spring-boc {Ant. euehore) has rather short upright horns, 

 with the sharp points bent inward almost at right angles, so 

 as to face each other; Mr. Bartlett does not know how they 

 are used, but suggests that they would inflict a fearful 

 wound down each side of the face of an antagonist. The 

 slightly curved horns of the Oryx leucoryx (Fig. 63) are 

 directed backward, and are of such length that their points 

 reach beyond the middle of the back, over which they ex- 

 tend in almost parallel lines. Thus they seem singularly 

 ill-fitted for fighting; but Mr. Bartlett informs me that when 

 two of these animals prepare for battle, they kneel down, 



» I£. B. M. BaiUy, "Sur I'usage des Comes," etc., "Annal. deg Sc. Nat.," 

 torn, a., 1824, p. 369. 



