148 NATURE STUDY. 



Nature Study Lessons. VIII. 



BY EDWARD J. BURNHAM. 



While the terms "evolution" and "natural selection" 

 still have a somewhat formidable appearance, even to many 

 grpwn people, the fundamantalprincipie is so simple, as in 

 the case of most great truths, that a child can readily com- 

 prehend it. All that is necessary is that the child shall 

 have a little guidance in seeing with its own ej^es and in 

 thinking in its own way. 



The average child, old enough to take walks abroad, 

 will readily perceive that if every pair of birds reared five 

 young, there would be seven birds in autumn where there 

 were two in spring. In order that there shall be ouly the 

 same number of birds always, five in seven must perish 

 each year. Nature has provided for this so delicately that 

 one rarely, almost never, sees a dead bird in field or wood. 

 Of course, when man goes to killing birds, too, it disturbs 

 Nature's plan,aud all the birds are in danger of destruction. 



In Nature's waj', the birds that are most easilj^seen are 

 most liable to be caught, unless they have some other 

 advantage, as swiftness or courage; those that have the 

 sharpest eyes are least liable to starve; those with the 

 sharpest and strongest claws can climb and scratch and 

 tear to the best advantage. Those that are less fortunate 

 must die. So it has come about that there are birds col- 

 ored like the greens and yellows and reds of summer; blue 

 birds, like the sky; brown and gray birds, like dried leaves 

 and the trunks of trees. 



Among plants, this "struggle for existence," is 

 much more intense than among animals. Millions of 

 seeds ripen where only a few can find a place to grow. 

 Plants are at a disadvantage in that they do not move 



