. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Evolution; Natural selection; Heredity; Human beings. Chap. XVII. Mammals—Law of Battle. 509 force, that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented by a single blow. With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine how they <san possibly use their curiously-shaped horns; thus the spring- boc {Ant. eucliore) has rather short upright horns, with the sharp points bent inwards almost at right angles, so as to face each other; Mr. Bartlett does not know how they are used, but suggests that they would inflict a fearful wound down each side
. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. Evolution; Natural selection; Heredity; Human beings. Chap. XVII. Mammals—Law of Battle. 509 force, that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented by a single blow. With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine how they <san possibly use their curiously-shaped horns; thus the spring- boc {Ant. eucliore) has rather short upright horns, with the sharp points bent inwards almost at right angles, so as to face each other; Mr. Bartlett does not know how they are used, but suggests that they would inflict a fearful wound down each side of the face of an antagonist. The slightly-curved horns of the. Fig. 63. Oryx leucoryx, male (from the Knowsley Menagerie) Oryx leucoryx (fig. 63) are directed backwards, and are of such length that their points reach beyond the middle of the back, over which they extend in almost parallel lines. Thus they seem singularly ill-fitted for fighting; but Mr. Bartlett informs me that when two of these animals prepare for battle, they kneel down, with their heads between their fore legs, and in this attitude the horns stand nearly parallel and close to the ground, with the points directed forwards and a little upwards. The com- batants then gradually approach each other, and each endeavours to get the upturned points under the body of the other; if one succeeds in doing this, he suddenly springs up, throwing up his head at the same time, and can thus wound or perhaps even trausfix his antagonist. Both animals always kneel down, so as to guard as far as possible against this manoeuvre. It has been recorded that one of these antelopes has used his horns with effect even against a lion; yet from being forced to place his hoad between the fore-legs in order to bring the points of the. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecthumanbeings, bookyear
