240 
SEXUAL selection: mammals. 
Part ' 
,d 
restrial mammals. It is notorious how desperately 
seals fight, hotli with their teeth and claws, during fb e 
breeding-season ; and their hides are likewise oft 611 
covered with scars, Male sperm-whales are very 
lous at this season; and in their battles “they oft#} 
“ lock their jaws together, and turn on their sides «»" 
twist about ; so that it is believed by some naturalist 
that the frequently deformed state of their lower jaws 
caused by these struggles. 2 
All male animals which are furnished with specif 
weapons for fighting, are well known to engage in fieA' e 
battles. The courage and the desperate conflicts of s tag s 
have often been described ; their skeletons have bee 11 
found in various parts of the world, with the horns 
extricably locked together, shewing how miserably 
victor and vanquished had perished. 3 No animal in ^ 
world is so dangerous as an elephant in must. L° n 
Tankerville has given me a graphic description of r ' ,e 
battles between the wild bulls in Chillingham l >ar ^’ 
the descendants degenerated in size hut not" iu courage 
of the gigantic Bos primigenius. In 1861 several co ]l ' 
tended lor mastery ; and it was observed that two 0 
the younger bulls attacked in concert the old 
of the herd, overthrew and disabled him, so that he 
believed by the keepers to be lying mortally wound e 
in a neighbouring wood. But a few days afterwards 0> ' e 
of the young bulls singly approached the wood ; ftI,t 
‘ 0n fi l e „. bflU1 1 es of seals - see Cajit, C. Abbott in ‘Proc. Zool- 
1868, p. LII ; also Mr. li. Brown, ibid. 186S, p. 486: also D- L 10 ' 
‘ Game 01 Sweden.’ 1S67, p. 412 ; also Pennant. On the sF r “ 
whale, see Mr. ,T. II. Thompson, in ‘ Proo. Zool. Soc.’ 1867, p- 2Jt: '. 
3 See Scrape (‘Art of Deer-stalking,’ p. 17) on the locking 1 ■ 
horns with tlie Cervns elaphus. Richardson, in * Fauna Bor. A®y p 
cana,’ 1829, p. 252, says that the wapiti, moose, and rein-deer have W 
found thus locked together. Sir A. Smith found at the Cape of 
lit?pe the skeletons oi two gnus in the same condition. 
