It is not only necessary that the animal should be able to attract a mate. There may be more than one claimant for the damsel's affection. In many animals we see provisions whereby the male may effectively deal with his rivals. This is especially likely to be the case if the animal be a polygamist. In every species there are produced about as many males as females. If the polygamous habit leads one male to gather about him a group of females, with whom he mates, it is evident that he is displacing an equal number of rivals, and they are not willingly displaced. Accordingly we find that polygamy is usually accompanied by a belligerent disposition on the part of the males. In our ordinary barnyard fowl this trait is very evident. The rooster not only domineers over the hens, not only struts about among them in stately fashion and gives vent to his feelings by his sonorous voice, he must also drive away from the neighborhood any rivals for the affections of his wives. Hence the rooster attacks upon sight the neighboring rooster, and battles with him to his entire discomfiture and sometimes to the death. Among the members of the deer family this particular phase of the relation between the sexes has produced in the males, and only very rarely in the females, the magnificent branching horns. These are intended not so much as a protection against the enemy as for an offensive weapon in the battle for the mates. Beautiful and stately as are these magnificent horns, they last only for a part of the year. We begin to understand their meaning. When the wolf is hungriest, toward the close of the bitter winter, the deer is without horns. When the time for mating comes, the deer within a few weeks grows his horns, which at first are covered with a plushlike coating, known as velvet. After a while this dries and he rubs his horns against the trees until they are clean and smooth. Now he is ready for the battle royal. In the case of the fur seals polygamy has carried its specialization of the males to a remarkable extent. The bull seals are several times as large as the cows, and are provided with terrific canine teeth. With these they battle with a violence that very often results in the death of one of the combatants. A successful bull seal who has gathered about him a cluster of seal cows is seamed and scarred with the marks of his annual combats.