170 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



ligence ; the more, therefore, he observes and cultivates 

 nature the more means he will find of making her 

 subservient to him, and of drawing new riches from her 

 bosom without diminishing the treasures of her in- 

 exhaustible fecundity." ' 



Birds. 



In the preface to his volumes upon birds, Buffon 

 says that these are not only much more numerous than 

 quadrupeds, but that they also exhibit a far larger 

 number of varieties, and individual variations. 



" The diversities," he declares, " which arise from the 

 effects of climate and food, of domestication, captivity, 

 transportation, voluntary and compulsory migration 

 all the causes in fact of alteration and degeneration 

 unite to throw difficulties in the way of the ornitho- 



legist."! 



He points out the infinitely keener vision of birds 

 than that of man and quadrupeds, and connects it with 

 their habits and requirements.! He does not appear to 

 consider it as caused by those requirements, though it is 

 quite conceivable that he saw this, but thought he had 

 already said enough. He repeatedly refers to the effects 

 of changed climate and of domestication, but I find 

 nothing in the first volume which modifies the position 

 already taken by him in regard to descent with modi- 

 fication: it is needless, therefore, to repeat the few 

 passages which are to be found bearing at all upon the 

 subject. The chapter on the birds that cannot fly, 



* Sup. torn. v. p. 253, 1778. f ' Oiseaux,' torn, i., preface, v. 1770. 

 t Ibid. pp. 9-11. 



