THE COOT 8i 



Some may, perhaps, accuse me of never missing an 

 opportunity to cast a stone at this hypothesis. To the 

 charge I must plead guilty ; but at the same time 

 I urge the plea of justification. The amount of non- 

 sense talked by some naturalists in the name of natural 

 selection is appalling. The generally accepted con- 

 ception of the nature of the struggle for existence needs 

 modification. Natural selection has of late become a 

 kind of fetish in England. So long as biologists are 

 content to fall down and worship the golden calf 

 they have manufactured, it is hopeless to look for 

 rapid scientific progress. The aspersions I cast on 

 Wallaceism are either justified or they are not. If 

 they are justified, it is surely high time to abandon 

 the doctrine of the all-sufficiency of natural selection 

 to account for the whole of organic evolution. If, on 

 the other hand, they are not justified, why do not the 

 orthodox biologists arise and refute my statements and 

 arguments ? It is my belief that the black livery of the 

 coot is not only not the product of natural selection, 

 but is positively harmful to its possessor ; that the 

 coot would be an even more successful species than it 

 now is, if, while retaining all its habits and other 

 characteristics, it had a coat of less conspicuous hue. 

 I maintain that many organisms possess characters 

 which are positively injurious to them, and yet manage 

 to survive. Natural selection has to take animals and 

 plants as it finds them — their good qualities with the 

 bad. If a species comes up to a certain standard, that 

 species will be permitted to survive, in spite of some 

 defects. By the ill-luck of variation the coot has 



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