664 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



erately developed canine teeth. Thus camels, gaanaoos, 

 chevrotaina, and musk-deer are hornless, and they have 

 ef&cient canines; these teeth being "always of smaller size 

 in the females than in the males." The Camelidse have, 

 in addition to their true canines, a pair of canine-shaped 

 incisors in their upper jaws." Male deer and antelopes, 

 on the other hand, possess horns, and they rarely have 

 canine teeth; and these, when present, are always of small 

 size, so that it is doubtful whether they are of any service 

 in their battles. In Antihpe montana they exist only as 

 rudiments in the young male, disappearing as he grows 

 old; anid they are absent in the female at all ages; but 

 the females of certain other antelopes and of certain deer 

 have been known occasionally to exhibit rudiments of these 

 teeth." Stallions have small canine teeth, which are either 

 quite absent or rudimentary in the mare; but they do not 

 appear to be used in fighting, for stallions bite With their 

 incisors, and do not open their mouths wide like camels 

 and guanacos. Whenever the adult male possesses ca- 

 nines, now inefficient, while the female has either none or 

 mere rudiments, we may conclude that the early male pro- 

 genitor of the species was provided with efficient canines, 

 which have been partially transferred to the females. The 

 reduction of these teeth in the males seems to have fol- 

 lowed from some change in their manner of fighting, often 

 (but not in the horse) caused by the development of new 

 weapons. 



Tusks and horns are manifestly of high importance to 

 their possessors, for their development consumes much or- 

 ganized matter, A single tusk of the Asiatic elephant — 



" Owen, "Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. iii. p. 349. 



'' See Euppell (in "Proo. Zoolog. Soo.," Jan. 12, 1836, p. 3) on the canines 

 in deer and antelopes, with a note by Mr. Martin on a female American deer. 

 See, also, Falconer ("Palseont. Memoirs and Notes," voL i., 1868, p. 516) on 

 canines in an adult female deer. In old males of the musk-deer the caninea 

 (Pallas, "Spic. Zoolog.," fasc. liii., 1779, p. 18) sometimes grow to the length 

 of three inches, while in old females a rudiment projects scarcely half an inch 

 above the gums. 



