The Descent of Man

Hutton (21. 'Calcutta Journal of Natural History,'
vol. ii, 1843, p. 526.) with the wild goat (Capra
aegagrus) of the Himalayas and, as it is also
said with the ibex, namely that when the male
accidentally falls from a height he bends inwards
his head, and by alighting on his massive
horns, breaks the shock. The female cannot
thus use her horns, which are smaller, but from
her more quiet disposition she does not need
this strange kind of shield so much.
Each male animal uses his weapons in his own
peculiar fashion. The common ram makes a
charge and butts with such force with the bases
of his horns, that I have seen a powerful man
knocked over like a child. Goats and certain
species of sheep, for instance the Ovis cycloceros
of Afghanistan (22. Mr. Blyth, in 'Land and
Water,' March, 1867, p. 134, on the authority of
Capt. Hutton and others. For the wild Pembrokeshire
goats, see the 'Field,' 1869, p. 150.), rear
on their hind legs, and then not only butt, but