The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin (books like harry potter TXT) 📕

I may here mention two very curious sexual peculiarities occurring in seals, because they have been supposed by some writers to affect the voice. The nose of the male sea-elephant (Macrorhinus proboscideus) becomes greatly elongated during the breeding-season, and can then be erected. In this state it is sometimes a foot in length. The female is not thus provided at any period of life. The male makes a wild, hoarse, gurgling noise, which is audible at a great distance and is believed to be strengthened by the proboscis; the voice of the female being different. Lesson compares the erection of the proboscis, with the swelling of the wattles of male gallinaceous birds whilst courting the females. In another allied kind of seal, the bladder-nose (Cystophora cristata), the head is covered by a great hood or bladder. This is supported by the septum of the nose, which is produced far backwards and rises into an internal crest seven inches in height. The hood is clothed with short hair, and is muscular; can be inflated until it more than equals the whole head in size! The males when rutting, fight furiously on the ice, and their roaring “is said to be sometimes so loud as to be heard four miles off.” When attacked they likewise roar or bellow; and whenever irritated the bladder is inflated and quivers. Some naturalists believe that the voice is thus strengthened, but various other uses have been assigned to this extraordinary structure. Mr. R. Brown thinks that it serves as a protection against accidents of all kinds; but this is not probable, for, as I am assured by Mr. Lamont who killed 600 of these animals, the hood is rudimentary in the females, and it is not developed in the males during youth. (8. On the sea-elephant, see an article by Lesson, in ‘Dict. Class. Hist. Nat.’ tom. xiii. p. 418. For the Cystophora, or Stemmatopus, see Dr. Dekay, ‘Annals of Lyceum of Nat. Hist.’ New York, vol. i. 1824, p. 94. Pennant has also collected information from the sealers on this animal. The fullest account is given by Mr. Brown, in ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.’ 1868, p. 435.)

ODOUR.

With some animals, as with the notorious skunk of America, the overwhelming odour which they emit appears to serve exclusively as a defence. With shrew-mice (Sorex) both sexes possess abdominal scent-glands, and there can be little doubt, from the rejection of their bodies by birds and beasts of prey, that the odour is protective; nevertheless, the glands become enlarged in the males during the breeding-season. In many other quadrupeds the glands are of the same size in both sexes (9. As with the castoreum of the beaver, see Mr. L.H. Morgan’s most interesting work, ‘The American Beaver,’ 1868, p. 300. Pallas (‘Spic. Zoolog.’ fasc. viii. 1779, p. 23) has well discussed the odoriferous glands of mammals. Owen (‘Anat. of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 634) also gives an account of these glands, including those of the elephant, and (p. 763) those of shrew-mice. On bats, Mr. Dobson in ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ 1873, p. 241.), but their uses are not known. In other species the glands are confined to the males, or are more developed than in the females; and they almost always become more active during the rutting-season. At this period the glands on the sides of the face of the male elephant enlarge, and emit a secretion having a strong musky odour. The males, and rarely the females, of many kinds of bats have glands and protrudable sacks situated in various parts; and it is believed that these are odoriferous.

The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known, and that of certain male deer is wonderfully strong and persistent. On the banks of the Plata I perceived the air tainted with the odour of the male Cervus campestris, at half a mile to leeward of a herd; and a silk handkerchief, in which I carried home a skin, though often used and washed, retained, when first unfolded, traces of the odour for one year and seven months. This animal does not emit its strong odour until more than a year old, and if castrated whilst young never emits it. (10. Rengger, ‘Naturgeschichte der Saugethiere von Paraguay,’ 1830, s. 355. This observer also gives some curious particulars in regard to the odour.) Besides the general odour, permeating the whole body of certain ruminants (for instance, Bos moschatus) in the breeding-season, many deer, antelopes, sheep, and goats possess odoriferous glands in various situations, more especially on their faces. The so-called tear-sacks, or suborbital pits, come under this head. These glands secrete a semi-fluid fetid matter which is sometimes so copious as to stain the whole face, as I have myself seen in an antelope. They are “usually larger in the male than in the female, and their development is checked by castration.” (11. Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ vol. iii. p. 632. See also Dr. Murie’s observations on those glands in the ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.’ 1870, p. 340. Desmarest, ‘On the Antilope subgutturosa, ‘Mammalogie,’ 1820, p. 455.) According to Desmarest they are altogether absent in the female of Antilope subgutturosa. Hence, there can be no doubt that they stand in close relation with the reproductive functions. They are also sometimes present, and sometimes absent, in nearly allied forms. In the adult male musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus), a naked space round the tail is bedewed with an odoriferous fluid, whilst in the adult female, and in the male until two years old, this space is covered with hair and is not odoriferous. The proper musk- sack of this deer is from its position necessarily confined to the male, and forms an additional scent-organ. It is a singular fact that the matter secreted by this latter gland, does not, according to Pallas, change in consistence, or increase in quantity, during the rutting-season; nevertheless this naturalist admits that its presence is in some way connected with the act of reproduction. He gives, however, only a conjectural and unsatisfactory explanation of its use. (12. Pallas, ‘Spicilegia Zoolog.’ fasc. xiii. 1799, p. 24; Desmoulins, ‘Dict. Class. d’Hist. Nat.’ tom. iii. p. 586.)

In most cases, when only the male emits a strong odour during the breeding- season, it probably serves to excite or allure the female. We must not judge on this head by our own taste, for it is well known that rats are enticed by certain essential oils, and cats by valerian, substances far from agreeable to us; and that dogs, though they will not eat carrion, sniff and roll on it. From the reasons given when discussing the voice of the stag, we may reject the idea that the odour serves to bring the females from a distance to the males. Active and long-continued use cannot here have come into play, as in the case of the vocal organs. The odour emitted must be of considerable importance to the male, inasmuch as large and complex glands, furnished with muscles for everting the sack, and for closing or opening the orifice, have in some cases been developed. The development of these organs is intelligible through sexual selection, if the most odoriferous males are the most successful in winning the females, and in leaving offspring to inherit their gradually perfected glands and odours.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR.

We have seen that male quadrupeds often have the hair on their necks and shoulders much more developed than the females; and many additional instances could be given. This sometimes serves as a defence to the male during his battles; but whether the hair in most cases has been specially developed for this purpose, is very doubtful. We may feel almost certain that this is not the case, when only a thin and narrow crest runs along the back; for a crest of this kind would afford scarcely any protection, and the ridge of the back is not a place likely to be injured; nevertheless such crests are sometimes confined to the males, or are much more developed in them than in the females. Two antelopes, the Tragelaphus scriptus (13. Dr. Gray, ‘Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley,’ pl. 28.) (Fig. 70) and Portax picta may be given as instances. When stags, and the males of the wild goat, are enraged or terrified, these crests stand erect (14. Judge Caton on the Wapiti, ‘Transact. Ottawa Acad. Nat. Sciences,’ 1868, pp. 36, 40; Blyth, ‘Land and Water,’ on Capra aegagrus 1867, p. 37.); but it cannot be supposed that they have been developed merely for the sake of exciting fear in their enemies. One of the above-named antelopes, the Portax picta, has a large well-defined brush of black hair on the throat, and this is much larger in the male than in the female. In the Ammotragus tragelaphus of North Africa, a member of the sheep-family, the fore-legs are almost concealed by an extraordinary growth of hair, which depends from the neck and upper halves of the legs; but Mr. Bartlett does not believe that this mantle is of the least use to the male, in whom it is much more developed than in the female.

[Fig. 68. Pithecia satanas, male (from Brehm).]

Male quadrupeds of many kinds differ from the females in having more hair, or hair of a different character, on certain parts of their faces. Thus the bull alone has curled hair on the forehead. (15. Hunter’s ‘Essays and Observations,’ edited by Owen, 1861. vol. i. p. 236.) In three closely- allied sub-genera of the goat family, only the males possess beards, sometimes of large size; in two other sub-genera both sexes have a beard, but it disappears in some of the domestic breeds of the common goat; and neither sex of the Hemitragus has a beard. In the ibex the beard is not developed during the summer, and is so small at other times that it may be called rudimentary. (16. See Dr. Gray’s ‘Catalogue of Mammalia in the British Museum,’ part iii. 1852, p. 144.) With some monkeys the beard is confined to the male, as in the orang; or is much larger in the male than in the female, as in the Mycetes caraya and Pithecia satanas (Fig. 68). So it is with the whiskers of some species of Macacus (17. Rengger, ‘Saugthiere,’ etc., s. 14; Desmarest, ‘Mammalogie,’ p. 86.), and, as we have seen, with the manes of some species of baboons. But with most kinds of monkeys the various tufts of hair about the face and head are alike in both sexes.

The males of various members of the ox family (Bovidae), and of certain antelopes, are furnished with a dewlap, or great fold of skin on the neck, which is much less developed in the female.

Now, what must we conclude with respect