The Descent of Man

cornes," etc., .Annal des Sciences Nat.' tom. ii.
1824, p. 369.) Hence a dog who pins a buffalo
by the nose is immediately crushed. We must,
however, remember that the Italian buffalo has
been long domesticated, and it is by no means
certain that the wild parent-form had similar
horns. Mr. Bartlett informs me that when a female
Cape buffalo (Bubalus caffer) was turned
into an enclosure with a bull of the same species,
she attacked him, and he in return pushed
her about with great violence. But it was manifest
to Mr. Bartlett that, had not the bull shewn
dignified forbearance, he could easily have killed
her by a single lateral thrust with his immense
horns. The giraffe uses his short, haircovered
horns, which are rather longer in the
male than in the female, in a curious manner;
for, with his long neck, he swings his head to
either side, almost upside down, with such force
that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented
by a single blow.