252 
SEXUAL selection: mammals. 
Part ‘ 
doing this, he suddenly springs up, throwing up hi 3 
head at the same time, and can thus wound or perhap® 
even transfix his antagonist. Both animals always knee* 
down so as to guard as far as possible against tin 3 
manoeuvre. It has heen recorded that one of the se 
antelopes has used his horns with effect even against ® 
lion; yet from being forced to place his head between 
the fore-legs in order to bring the points of the hoi ' 119 
forward, he would generally be under a great <* lS ' 
advantage when attacked by any other animal. It lS ’ 
therefore, not probable that the horns have been modified 
into their present great length and peculiar position, aS 
a protection against beasts of prey. We can, howeveb 
see that as soon as some ancient male progenitor of th a 
Oryx acquired moderately long horns, directed a lit ** 15 
backwards, he would be compelled in his battles wit * 1 
rival males to bend his head somewhat inwards or do" -11 ' 
wards, as is now done by certain stags ; and it is n°* 
improbable that he might have acquired the habit 0 
at first occasionally and afterwards of regularly kne e *' 
ing down. In this case it is almost certain that th e 
males which possessed the longest horns would h » v0 
had a great advantage over others with shorter hoi' 119 ’ 
and then the horns would gradually have been i' eU | 
dered longer and longer, through sexual selection, unt 1 
they acquired their present extraordinary length illl ‘ 
position. 
With stags of many kinds the branching of the h 01 '^ 
offers a curious case of difficulty ; for certainly a sing 10 
straight point would inflict a much more serious worn 1 
than several diverging points. In Sir Philip BgerW ' 1 3 
museum there is a horn of the red-deer (Cervus e ^‘ 
pirns) thirty inches in length, with “not fewer tb» IJ 
“ fifteen snags or branches and at Moritzburg the ? 3 
is still preserved a pair of antlers of a red-deer, shot 111 
