250 
SEXUAL SELECTION: MAMMALS. 
Part IL 
mode of fighting, always closing at once with his 
adversary, and catching him across the face and nose 
^Svith a sharp drawing jerk of his head, and then 
bounding out of the w^ay before the blow could be 
“ returned.'’ In Pembrokeshire a male goat, the master 
of a fiock which during several generations had run 
wild, was known to have killed several other males in 
single combat; this goat possessed enormous horns,, 
measuring 39 inches in a straight line from tip to tip. 
The common bull, as every one knows, gores and tosses 
his opponent; but the Italian buffalo is said never to 
use his horns, he gives a tremendous blow with his 
convex forehead, and then tramples on his fallen enemy 
wdth his knees — an instinct which the common bull does 
not possess.^^ Hence a dog who pins a buffalo by 
the nose is immediately crushed. We must, however, 
remember that the Italian buffalo has long been domes- 
ticated, and it is by no means certain that the wild 
parent-form had similarly shaped horns. Mr. Bartlett 
informs me that when a female Cape buffalo (Buhalus 
caffer) was turned into an enclosure with a bull of 
the same species, she attacked him, and he in return 
pushed her about with great violence. But it was 
manifest to Mr. Bartlett that had not the bull shewn 
dignified forbearance, he could easily have killed her 
by a single lateral thrust with his immense horns. The 
giraffe uses his short hair-covered horns, which are 
rather longer in the male than in the female, in a 
curious manner ; for with his long neck he swings his 
head to either side, almost upside down, with such 
force, that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented 
by a single blow. 
M. E. M. Bailly, “ sur Pusage des Comes,” &c., ‘ Annal. des Sc.. 
Nat/ tom. ii. 1824, p. 369. 
