50 THE NEXT GENERATION 



my balance." Here were lizards two and three feet long, 

 one "terrestrial," the other "aquatic" "the latter," says 

 Darwin, " a hideous looking creature of a dirty black color, 

 stupid and sluggish in its movements." Sometimes these 

 lizards weighed twenty pounds apiece or more. They went 

 off on swimming parties a hundred yards from shore. As a 

 certain sea captain said, " They go to sea in herds a-fishing, 

 and sun themselves on the rocks, and may be called alliga- 

 tors in miniature." 



In this surprising place Darwin found and named new 

 species l of plants and animals by the dozen and the hundred. 

 On every side he saw new birds, new reptiles, new shells, 

 new insects ; and yet, as he himself says, " by innumerable 

 trifling details of structure, and even by the tones of voice 

 and plumage of the birds," these various creatures reminded 

 him of those other creatures, similar yet so different, that 

 had lived on the " temperate plains of Patagonia or the hot, 

 dry deserts of northern Chile. . . . What is the explana- 

 tion?" he asks. "Why were they created on American types 

 of organization ? " 



1 A species is a group of plants or animals in which the individuals are 

 very much alike.. For example, one species of violet has white blossoms, 

 another has blue blossoms ; one has round leaves, another has leaves of 

 lancet shape. Each is a different species, but all are violets. Then there 

 are the humming birds. One species is almost as large as an English spar- 

 row, other species are no larger than huge butterflies. One species has 

 bright feathers on its neck that give it the name rubythroat, another 

 has half a dozen stiff red -feathers that stand 'above the others on its 

 throat. All these are humming birds, but each is a different species. All 

 other animals and plants are divided into species in the same way. Scien- 

 tists do this for the sake of studying the life of the earth. They also put 

 different species together to make a larger group, called a genus. They 

 put genera together to make a family, and families together to make an 

 order. Then come classes, divisions, and finally the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms. 



