no tempting juices for the destroying 

 Bird. But the same Providence which 

 gave these marvelous powers of mim- 

 icry also gave the other parties the 

 eyes to see and apparent judgment to 

 penetrate the mask and secure the 

 needed meal. And so the ravening 

 Beast sometimes fastens himself upon 

 the Giraffe in spite of the disguise and 

 the Bird finds the Butterfly in his cur- 

 ious garb. 



Those who know least about Nature 

 are loudest in their praise of her 

 remarkable adaptations for special ends. 

 Those who know most about her are 

 obliged to confess that while her ways 

 are marvelous indeed and her adapta- 

 tions strangely effective and various yet 

 she does not provide accurately and cer- 

 tainly for all contingencies. 



In fact there is no such thing in 

 Nature as a perfect adaptation. No 

 living thing is perfectly protected from 

 its enemies. No part is accurately 

 adjusted to the part to which it is 

 to be applied. The beak and talons 

 of the Eagle are not perfectly adapted 

 to flesh tearing. The hoof of the 

 Arabian Horse is not perfectly adapted 

 to carrying him over the sands of the 

 the desert, but the very preservation 

 of the horse upon the sands requires 

 that he shall be peculiarly shod to 

 protect his hoof. No animal that Flies 

 attack has a tail capable of whisking 

 them from every part of its body. A 

 Dog's teeth are beautifully adapted 

 to many purposes, but he cannot 

 remove a Tick from his skin. The 

 Cat has particularly keen sight, adjust- 

 able to all degrees of light. But when 

 the Ocelot was being photographed for 

 the July number of Birds and all 



Nature the old Cat that purrs about 

 the studio was not keen enough to 

 see that it was a mounted animal. He 

 came forward in a most belligerent 

 attitude with glaring eyes and dis- 

 tended tail. When the artist gave the 

 stuffed beast a slight motion the af- 

 frighted cat sped down the stairway 

 and out of the building with the celer- 

 ity hitherto entirely unsuspected in him. 



There is no eye in Nature that sees 

 perfectly and no ear that hears all that 

 is going on. One animal is superior 

 to others in certain ways, but none is 

 perfect. All wings are not for flight. 

 Some are better than others for sweep- 

 ing through the air, but perfection is 

 found in none. 



In most animals are found organs 

 which are not of use. They frequently 

 resemble organs that are of the highest 

 utility to some other form of life, but 

 for the animal in question they are 

 apparently waste material. When the 

 Horse uses but one toe of each foot 

 there seems to be little reason for his 

 having the rudimentary forms of more. 

 There are claws on the legs of many 

 Dogs that have never been called into 

 action. They are so far from the 

 ground and so weak and immovable 

 that the Dog himself does not know 

 they are there. 



In every man there are muscles 

 beneath the scalp for moving the ear. 

 We have no such need for ear motion 

 as have many of the lower animals, 

 but it is the despair of many a school 

 boy to discover how few of the race 

 are able to contract these muscles ever 

 so slightly. 



The Lammergeier, or Bearded Vul- 

 ture, is instinctively instructed to 



42 



