268 
SEXUAL selection: mammals. 
Part II. 
stallion has a thicker and fuller mane than the mare ; 
and I have made particular inquiries of two great 
trainers and breeders who have had charge of many 
entire horses, and am assured that they invariably 
endeavour to seize one another by the neck.” It 
does not, however, follow from the foregoing state- 
ments, that when the hair on the neck serves as a 
defence, that it was originally developed for this pur- 
pose, though this is probable in some cases, as in that 
of the lion. I am informed by Mr. McNeill that the 
long hairs on the throat of the stag {Cervus elephas) 
serve as a great protection to him when hunted, for 
the dogs generally endeavour to seize him by the 
throat ; but it is not probable that these hairs were 
specially developed for this purpose ; otherwise the 
young and the females would, as we may feel assured, 
have been equally protected. 
On Preference or Choice in Pairing, as shewn hy either 
sex of Quadrupeds, — Before describing, in the next chap- 
ter, the differences between the sexes in^voice, odour 
emitted, and ornamentation, it will be convenient here 
to consider whether the sexes exert any choice in their 
unions. Does the female prefer any particular male, 
either before or after the males may have fought to- 
gether for supremacy ; or does the male, when not a poly- 
gamist, select any particular female ? The general im- 
pression amongst breeders seems to be that the male 
accepts any female; and this, owing to his eagerness, 
is, in most cases, probably the truth. Whether the 
female as a general rule indifferently accepts any male 
is much more doubtful. In the fourteenth chapter, 
on Birds, a considerable body of direct and indirect 
evidence was advanced, shewing that the female selects 
her partner ; and it would be a strange anomaly if 
