672 ZOOLOGY, 



vidual and of the members of the class to which it belongs ;; 

 the parallelism between the formation and differentiation 

 of the land-masses of the globe and the successive extinc- 

 tions and creations of plants and animals all these facts, 

 notwithstanding the imperfections of the geological record,, 

 and the fact that many of the older forms of animals were 

 nearly as much specialized as those now living ; tend strongly 

 to prove that, on the whole, the world as it now exists has 

 been the result of progressive development, one form com- 

 ing genetically from another ; the animal and plant worlds 

 constituting two systems of blood relations, rather than sets. 

 of independent creations. 



When to more special studies of those species Avhich live 

 in extraordinary environments, such as cave-animals, para- 

 sitic animals, brine-inhabiting animals, Alpine forms and 

 certain deep-sea species, we add the study of rudimentary 

 organs in adult animals, of temporary, deciduous organs in 

 young or larval animals ; when we compare the metamor' 

 phoses of some species congeneric with others which undergo' 

 no transformations ; when we study the delicate balance in 

 nature as observed in the geographical distribution of ani- 

 mals ; the harmony in nature between species and their en- 

 vironment ; protective coloration and resemblance in form, 

 the relations between carnivorous and herbivorous creatures, 

 the struggle for existence between animals, we are forced 

 to acknowledge that the operations of nature, as a whole, 

 tend, on the one hand, to the origination of new forms 

 and the preservation of those which are useful, or, in other 

 words, are in harmony with their surroundings ; and, on the 

 other hand, to the destruction of those which are incapaci- 

 tated by changes in their environment for existence in what 

 has been and now is a constantly changing, progressive 

 world. 



Again, reasoning by induction, as an actual fact we know 

 that species vary ; that hardly any two experts agree exactly 

 as to the limitation of species ;* that varieties tend to break 



* As one of many examples, we may cite the fact that fifty-nine nom- 

 inal species of the squirrels have been described as inhabiting tropical 

 America, but lately the number has been reduced to twelve. 



