LAW OF BATTLE. 
243 
C «AF. XVII. 
It is 
have 
°Win 
not probable, at least in most cases, that the females 
* actually been saved from acquiring such weapons, 
l S to tbeir being useless and superfluous, or in some 
I d ) injurious. On the contrary, as they are often used 
I' tbe males of many animals for various purposes, 
Jfe especially as a defence against their enemies, it is 
uprising fact that they are so poorly developed or 
Phte absent in the females. No doubt with female deer 
l development during each recurrent season of great 
, fl n /.b * 1 1 • . 1 .1 «i m . , 1 
th 
lynching horns, and with female elephants the deve- 
P*hent of immense tusks, would have been a great 
oi vital power, on the admission that they were 
th 130 USe ^ ie thinales. Consequently variations in 
e size of these organs, leading to their suppression, 
0, dd have come under the control of natural selection, 
11 If limited in their transmission to the female off- 
^1’Ung would not have interfered with their develop- 
(j ^ u t t ^ rou Sl 1 sexua l selection in the males. But how 
^ fnls view can we explain the presence of horns in the 
'hales of certain antelopes, and of tusks in the females 
^ Hrany animals, which are only of slightly less size 
ilu in the males ? The explanation in almost all cases 
st > I believe, be sought in the laws of transmission. 
|, the reindeer is the single species in the whole 
j t of Deer in which the female is furnished with 
01 Us > though somewhat smaller, thinner, and less 
bn 
t l‘ ,;i Hched than in the male, it might naturally he 
-j.^ u ght that they must be of some special use to her. 
pi e,e is, however, some evidence opposed to this view. 
female retains her horns from the time when they 
th! developed, namely in September, throughout 
"in' VlUter ’ Until JIay ’ wlieQ slle br “g s forth her young ; 
t J ! st the male casts his horns much earlier towards the 
°f November. As both sexes have the same require- 
4£1 ts and follow tbe same habits of life, and as tbe male 
li 2 
