Misfits 187 



fine spring morning find food supplies and breeding places 

 wiped off the face of the earth — that is, their earth. 

 And the tribe perishes without having undergone the 

 slightest change in structure or capacities. The armored 

 dinosaurs were real animals and quite distinct from one an- 

 other as well as from other reptiles notwithstanding their 

 relatively short sojourn upon the earth of only a few million 

 years. Any factor that upsets the balance of life may cause 

 havoc to one or another species, but while it lived such a 

 species was a true species no matter how it originated. 



Misfits 



To say that a given plant or animal, regardless of its 

 origin, is a misfit or a failure is to suggest more than is nec- 

 essary for a consideration of the facts of evolution. It is in- 

 deed true that there are born every year countless individuals 

 that are so defective in one way or another that they could 

 not under any circumstances remain long alive. We must 

 nevertheless think of the exterminated misfits of the past 

 exactly as we think of the adapted plants and animals — 

 that is to say, we must consider maladaptation as well as 

 adaptation entirely from a relative point of view. The clear- 

 ing away of woodland to be replaced with orchards results 

 in the extermination (in a given area) of many plants, of 

 many fungi, of many species of insects. It results also in the 

 increase not only of the cultivated plants under the solic- 

 itous care of the orchardist, but also of many uninvited 

 guests. The plant lice that multiply by the million on the 

 fruit tree are, as mechanisms, no more fit than they were a 

 few years ago. They increase vastly in numbers, however, 

 because the conditions in this particular region have become 

 for them more favorable. The actual picture at a given 

 time shows then a radical change in the proportions of the 

 various kinds of insects. Those that have been exterminated 

 are for the time being less fit. 



Exactly the same kind of thing has happened with many 



