258 
SEXUAL SELECTION: MAMMALS. 
Part 
II. 
doubtful whether they are of any service in theb 
battles. With Antilope montana they exist only 
rudiments in the young male, disappearing as b e 
grows old ; and they are absent in the female il * 
all ages ; but the females of certain other antelope 3 
and deer have been known occasionally to exhibit 
rudiments of these teeth. 23 Stallions have small cani» e 
teeth, which are either quite absent or rudimentari 
in the mare ; but they do not appear to be used 111 
fighting, for stallions bite with their incisors, and &° 
not open their mouths widely like camels and guairi' 
coes. Whenever the adult male possesses canines n°" 
in an inefficient state, whilst the female has either » oI>0 
or mere rudiments, we may conclude that the eaw 
male progenitor of the species was provided with e ^' 
cient canines, which had been partially transferred 
the females. The reduction of these teeth in the m a ^ S 
seems to have followed from some change in tl |Cl1 
manner of fighting, often caused (but not in the c^ e 
of the horse) by the development of new weapons. 
Tusks and horns are manifestly of high importance 
their possessors, for their development consumes ® uC 
organised matter. A single tusk of the Asiatic 
phant, — one of the extinct woolly species, — and of 
African elephant, have been known to weigh respectW' • 
lot), lliO, and 180 pounds; and even greater weigh 
have been assigned by some authors. 29 With deer, 11 
it® 
!S See Itiippell (in Tree. Zoolog. Soc.’ Jan. 12, 183G, p. 3) on ^ 
canines in deer ancl antelopes, with a note by Mr. Martin on a ’ 
American deer. See also Falconer (‘Pa keen t. Mtmoirs and ^ 
vol. i. 1868, p. 576) on canines in an adult female dccr. In old ji. 
of the musk-deer the canines (Pallas, ‘Spic. Zoolog.’ fasc. xi.i- 
18) sometimes grow to the length of three inches, whilst in old && 
a rudiment projects scarcely half an inch above the gums. 
20 Emerson Tennent, ‘Ceylon,’ 1S59, vol. ii. p. 275; Owen, 
Fossil Mammals/ 1816, p. 245, 
I3rit* Jl 
