SEXUAL SELECTION 671 



those in the .upper, but from their shortness it seems hardly 

 possible that they can be used as weapons of attack. They 

 must, however, greatly strengthen those in the upper jaw, 

 from being ground so as to fit closely against their bases. 

 Neither the upper nor the lower tusks appear to have been 

 specially modified to act as guards, though no doubt they 

 are to a certain extent used for this purpose. But the wart- 

 hog is not destitute of other special means of protection, 

 for it has, on each side of the face, beneath the eyes, a 

 rather stiff, yet flexible, cartilaginous, oblong pad (Fig. 67), 

 which projects two or three inches outward; and it ap- 



PiQ. ©?.— Head of female ^Ethiopian Wart-hog, from "Proo. Zool. Soc," 1869, show- 

 ing the same characters as the male, though od a reduced scale. — N.B. When the 

 engraving was first made, I was under the impression that it represented the male. 



peared to Mr. Bartlett and myself, when viewing the living 

 animal, that these pads, when struck from beneath by the 

 tusks of an opponent, would be turned upward, and would 

 thus admirably protect the somewhat prominent eyes. I 

 may add, on the authority of Mr. Bartlett, that these boars 

 when fighting stand directly face to face. 



Lastly, the African river- hog {^Potomochoerus penicillatus) 

 has a hacd cartilaginous knob on each side of the face be- 

 neath the eyes, which answers to the flexible pad of the 

 wart-hog; it has also two bony prominences on the upper 

 jaw above the nostrils. A boar of this species in the Zoo- 



