Voice-Remarkable sexual peculiarities in seals-Odour-Development of the hair-Colour of the hair and skin-Anomalous case of the female being more ornamented than the male-Colour and ornaments due to sexual selection-Colour acquired for the sake of protection-Colour, though common to both sexes, often due to sexual selection-On the disappearance of spots and stripes in adult quadrupeds-On the colours and ornaments of the Quadrumana-Summary.
Quadrupeds use their voices for various purposes, as a signal of danger, as a call from one member of a troop to another, or from the mother to her lost offspring, or from the latter for protection to their mother; but such uses need not here be considered. We are concerned only with the difference between the voices of the sexes, for instance between that of the lion and lioness, or of the bull and cow. Almost all male animals use their voices much more during the rutting-season than at any other time; and some, as the giraffe and porcupine (1. Owen, ‘Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 585. ), are said to be completely mute excepting at this season. As the throats (i.e. the larynx and thyroid bodies (2. Ibid. p. 595.)) of stags periodically become enlarged at the beginning of the breeding-season, it might be thought that their powerful voices must be somehow of high importance to them; but this is very doubtful.
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