276 SEXUAL selection: mammals. Part II. 
bellowing serves as a call to the female ; but the 
experienced observers above quoted inform me that 
female deer do not search for the male, though the 
males search eagerly for the females, as indeed might 
be expected from what we know of the habits of 
other male quadrupeds. The voice of the female, 
on the other hand, quickly brings to her one or more 
stags, ^ as is well known to the hunters who in wild 
countries imitate her cry. If we could believe that 
the male had the power to excite or allure the female 
by his voice, the periodical enlargement of his vocal 
organs would be intelligible on the principle of sexual 
selection, together with inheritance limited to the same 
sex and season of the year ; but we have no evidence 
in favour of this view. As the case stands, the loud 
voice of the stag during the breeding season does not 
seem to be of any special service to him, either during 
his courtship or battles, or in any other way. But may 
we not believe that the frequent use of the voice, under 
the strong excitement of love, jealousy, and rage, con- 
tinued during many generations, may at last have 
produced an inherited effect on the vocal organs of 
the stag, as well as of other male animals? This 
appears to me, with our present state of knowledge, 
the most probable view. 
The male gorilla has a tremendous voice, and when 
adult is furnished with a laryngeal sack, as is likewise 
the adult male orang.^ The gibbons rank amongst the 
noisiest of monkeys, and the Sumatra species {Hylolates 
syndactylus) is also furnished with a laryngeal sack ; but 
Mr. Blyth, who has had opportunities for observation. 
3 See, for instance, Major W. Eoss King The Sportsman in Canada,’ 
1866, p. 53, 131) on the habits of the moose and wild reindeer. 
^ Owen, ‘ Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 600. 
