conclude that weapons for battle, organs for producing sound, ornaments
of many kinds, bright and conspicuous colours, have generally been
acquired by the males through variation and sexual selection, and have
been transmitted in various ways according to the several laws of
inheritance the females and the young being left comparatively but
little modified. (57. I am greatly indebted to the kindness of Mr.
Sclater for having looked over these four chapters on birds, and the
two following ones on mammals. In this way I have been saved from
making mistakes about the names of the species, and from stating
anything as a fact which is known to this distinguished naturalist to
be erroneous. But, of course, he is not at all answerable for the
accuracy of the statements quoted by me from various authorities.)
CHAPTER XVII.
SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS OF MAMMALS.
The law of battle Special weapons, confined to the males Cause of
absence of weapons in the female Weapons common to both sexes, yet
primarily acquired by the male Other uses of such weapons Their high
importance Greater size of the male Means of defence On the preference
shown by either sex in the pairing of quadrupeds.
With mammals the male appears to win the female much more through the
law of battle than through the display of his charms. The most timid
animals, not provided with any special weapons for fighting, engage in
desperate conflicts during the season of love. Two male hares have been
seen to fight together until one was killed; male moles often fight,
and sometimes with fatal results; male squirrels engage in frequent
contests, and often wound each other severely ; as do male beavers, so
that hardly a skin is without scars. (1. See Waterton s account of
two hares fighting, Zoologist, vol. i. 1843, p. 211. On moles, Bell,
Hist. of British Quadrupeds, 1st ed., p. 100. On squirrels, Audubon
and Bachman, Viviparous Quadrupeds of N. America, 1846, p. 269. On
beavers, Mr. A.H. Green, in Journal of Linnean Society, Zoology, vol.
x. 1869, p. 362.) I observed the same fact with the hides of the
guanacoes in Patagonia; and on one occasion several were so absorbed in
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