28o TRAVELS IN 
Its horns are never employed In fight. I 
did not perceive It ufe them even agalnft my 
dogs ; and thefe weak and ufelefs weapons 
would feem but an error of Nature, if Nature 
could ever commit error, or fail in her de- 
figns. 
It Is a pretty conftant rule among animals 
in general, that males when young refemble 
females, and have nothing to make them dlf« 
tinguilhed. This refemblance in youth Is not 
peculiar to manyfpecies of quadrupeds, aslihall 
hereafter fhow, but Is found in numbers of 
birds, both of chofe in which the two fexes dif- 
fer mcft in the perfed: ftate, and of thofe which 
change their colour in the different feafons of 
the year. Among thefe there is a fixed period, 
when the male quits his brilliant plumage for 
the modeft garb of the female ; and hence the 
frequent miftakes of certain naturallfts, who in 
their cabinets bring together animals of dif- 
ferent fpecies, or feparate others of the fame, 
in contradidion to nature, with which they are 
little acquainted. 
The male and female giraffe refemble each 
other in external appearance while young. 
Their obtufe horns terminate in a bundle of 
long 
