CiiAP. XYII. 
LAW OF BATTLE. 
259 
which the horns are periodically renewed, the drain 
on the constitution must be greater; the horns, for 
instance, of the moose weigh from fifty to sixty pounds, 
and those of the extinct Irish elk from sixty to seventy 
pounds, — the skull of the latter weighing on an average 
only five and a quarter pounds. With sheep, although 
the horns are not periodically renewed, yet their de- 
velopment, in the opinion of many agriculturists, en- 
tails a sensible loss to the breeder. Stags, more- 
over, in escaping from beasts of prey are loaded with 
an additional weight for the race, and are greatly 
retarded in passing through a woody country. The 
moose, for instance, with horns extending five and a 
half feet from tip to tip, although so skilful in their 
use that he will not touch or break a dead twig 
when walking quietly, cannot act so dexterously whilst 
rushing away from a pack of wolves. During his 
progress he holds his nose up, so as to lay the 
horns horizontally back ; and in this attitude cannot 
see the ground distinctly.” The tips of the horns 
of the great Irish elk were actually eight feet apart ! 
Whilst the horns are covered with velvet, which lasts 
with the red-deer for about twelve weeks, they are 
extremely sensitive to a blow; so that in Germany 
the stags at this time change their habits to a cer- 
tain extent, and avoid dense forests, frequenting young 
woods and low thickets.^^ These facts remind us, that 
male birds have acquired ornamental plumes at the 
cost of retarded flight, and other ornaments at the cost 
of some loss of power in their battles with rival males. 
Kichardson, ‘Fauna Uor. Americana/ on the moose, Alces palmata, 
’,p. 236, 237 ; also on the expanse of the horns ‘ Land and Water,’ 
1869, p. 143 See also Owen, ‘ British Fossil Mammals,’ on the Irish 
elk, p. 447, 455. 
‘ Forest Creatures,’ hy C. Boner, 1861, p. 60. 
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