8 Geographical Distribution of Animals. 



see how they answer the object which was intended, namely, 

 the peopling of the whole world with various races of organized 

 beings. 



Whenever we consider the economy of nature, we observe 

 great varieties in the habits of different animals. There are, 

 indeed, some which live constantly in pairs, and which by 

 nature are designed to perpetuate their races in that way, 

 and to spread generation after generation over their natural 

 boundaries, thus mated. But there are others to which it is 

 equally natural to live in herds or shoals, and which we never 

 find isolated. The idea of a pair of herrings, or of a pair of 

 buffaloes, is as contrary to the nature and habits of those 

 nimals, as it is contrary to the nature of pines and birches 

 to grow singly, and to form forests in their isolation. 



But we can go further. There are animals in which the 

 number of individuals of different sexes is naturally unequal, 

 and among which there are either constantly more males or 

 constantly more females born, as the result of their peculiar 

 nature and habits in the creation. A bee-hive never consists 

 of a pair of bees ; and never could such a pair preserve the 

 species, with their habits. For them it is natural to have one 

 female and many males devoted to it, and thousands of neutral 

 bees working for them. And this is the natural original 

 mode of existence among that species of animals, which it 

 would be utterly contrary to the laws of nature to consider as 

 derived from a single pair. There ^re a number of birds, on 

 the contrary, in which only a few males are universally found 

 with many females, living together in companies, such as the 

 pheasants, and our domesticated fowls. It were easy to mul- 

 tiply examples in order to shew that a creation of all animals 

 in pairs would have been contrary to their very nature, as we 

 observe it in all. To assume that they have changed this 

 nature would be to fall back upon the necessity of ascribing 

 to physical influences a power which they do not possess, — 

 that of producing changes in the very nature of organized 

 beings, and of modifying the primitive plan of the Creator. 



Again, there are animals which, by nature, are impelled to 

 feed upon other animals. Was the primitive pair of lions 

 to abstain from food until the gazelles and other antelopes had 



