DOMESTIC CATTLE. 141 



more effective as weapons than are his. Pro- 

 bably the cow's long curved horns represent 

 the primitive type, while the blunt and conical 

 weapons of the modern bull represent a special 

 modification. 



This leads us to one of those interesting 

 general questions concerning what may be 

 called the moral aspect of animal life which 

 Darwinism has done so much to reveal and 

 to unravel. One finds it to be a rule that, 

 where natural weapons are used in civil con- 

 tests, they are scarcely ever of a lethal char- 

 acter ; and even where they are chiefly for de- 

 fence against bloodthirsty foes, they are seldom 

 of such a form as inevitably to produce death. 

 One can, of course, see that where animals live 

 in communities in the manner of the Bovidee, 

 it is decidedly against the public interest for 

 duels to the death to occur between the rival 

 champions of a herd. Supposing, for instance, 

 that the bull was armed with the fearful bayonets 

 of the gemsbok, and was still in the habit of 

 charging impetuously at his competitors for the 

 chieftainship, it would often happen that the 

 herd would be deprived of its two most pro- 

 mising leaders and protectors ; for neither beast 



