250 
sexual selection: mammals. 
PARI 
“ inode of fighting, always closing at once with hi-' 
“ adversary, and catching him across the face and nose 
“with a sharp drawing jerk of his head, and the 11 
“ bounding out of the way before the blow could h 
“ returned.” In Pembrokeshire a male goat, the niaste r 
of a flock which during several generations had rUl1 
wild, was known to have killed several other males 
single combat; this goat possessed enormous hornft 
measuring 39 inches in a straight line from tip to tip' 
The common bull, as every one knows, gores and tosse® 
his opponent ; but the Italian buffalo is saicl never t° 
use his horns, he gives a tremendous blow- with h )S 
convex forehead, and then tramples on his fallen ene»V 
with his knees — an instinct which the common bull do e ® 
not possess. 19 Hence a dog wdio pins a buffalo W 
the nose is immediately crushed. We must, liowe^ er ’ 
remember that the Italian buffalo has long been doi» eS " 
ticated, and it is by no means certain that the wn 
parent-form had similarly shaped horns. Mr. Barth’* 
informs me that when a female Cape buffalo (Bub^t 
coffer) was turned into an enclosure with a bull 0 
the same species, she attacked him, and he in retu r 
pushed her about with great violence. But it ' vllS 
manifest to Mr. Bartlett that had not the hull she'' 1 ' 
dignified forbearance, he could easily have killed b el ' 
by a single lateral thrust with his immense horns. r ^ e 
giraffe uses Ids short hair-covered horns, which 
rather longer in the male than in the female, i 11 f 
curious manner ; for with his long neck he swings b IB 
head to either side, almost upside down, with s llC , 
torce, that I have seen a hard plank deeply indent 
by a single blow. 
19 M. E. M. Bailly, “ sur l’usage des Comes,” &c., ‘ Annal. des 
Nat.’ tom. ii. 1824, p. 3G9. 
Sc- 
