SEXUAL SELECTION 663 



Ing power. Though the branched antlers of a stag are well 

 adapted for fighting with his rivals, and though it might be 

 an advantage to the prong-horned variety slowly to acquire 

 long and branched horns, if he had to fight only with others 

 of the same kind, yet it by no means follows that branched 

 horns would be the best fitted for conquering a foe difEer- 

 ently armed. In the foregoing case of the Oryx leucoryx 

 it is almost certain that the victory would rest with an an- 

 telope having short horns, and who therefore did not need 

 to kneel down, though an oryx might profit by having still 

 longer horns, if he fought only with his proper rivals. 



Male quadrupeds which are furnished with tusks use 

 them in various ways, as in the case of horns. The boar 

 strikes laterally and upward; the musk-deer downward 

 with serious effect." The walrus, though having so short 

 a neck and so unwieldy a body, "can strike either upward 

 or downward or sidewise, with equal dexterity."" I was 

 informed by the late Dr. Falconer that the Indian elephant 

 fights in a different manner according to the position and 

 curvature of his tusks. When they are directed forward 

 and upward he is able to fling a tiger to a great distance 

 — ^it is said to even thirty feet; when they are short and 

 turned downward he endeavors suddenly to pin the tiger 

 to the ground, and, in consequence, is dangerous to the 

 .rider, who is liable to be' jerked off the howdah.'" 



Very few male quadrupeds possess weapons of two dis- 

 tinct kinds specially adapted for fighting with rival males. 

 The male muntjac-deer (Cervulus), however, offers an ex- 

 ception, as he is provided with horns and exserted canine 

 teeth. But we may infer from what follows that one form 

 of weapon has often been replaced in the course of ages by 

 another. With ruminants the development of horns gen- 

 erally stands in an inverse relation with that of even mod- 



's Pallas, "SpioUegia Zoologica," fasc. xiii., 1179, p. 18. 

 s» Lamont, "Seasons with the Sea-Horses," 1861, p. 141. 

 *> See, also. Corse ("Philosoph. Transact.," 1799, p. 212) on the manner 

 in which the ahort-tusked Mooknah variety attacks other elephants. 



