EVOLUTION OF THE COLORS OF BIRDS, 109 



To admit that it is the family rather than the single 

 individual which natural selection preserves, is far dif- 

 ferent from granting that the species, or even the race 

 or tribe is what natural selection especially favors. Let 

 us pass on next to a consideration of this point. The 

 family, as we have seen, is absolutely indispensable to 

 the life of the individual, in the widest sense, but 

 this is not the case with the tribe. The individual can 

 have a potential bodily immortality without the tribe, 

 and in a large number of cases this actually occurs. 

 However, it sometimes happens that by associating in a 

 community with similar interests, a greater number of 

 individuals can enjoy an immunity from some common 

 danger. This would only occur when the struggle for ex- 

 istence was more severe with some outside enemy than 

 with each other, which would be a comparatively 

 exceptional state of affairs. 



This has not brought us any nearer to Mr. Romanes' 

 main proposition, that it is the life of the species which 

 natural selection preserves, and not that of the indi- 

 vidual. In point of fact, natural selection does not 

 preserve species with anything like the persistence 

 with which she perpetuates genera, nor are genera as 

 lasting as orders. What natural selection really pre- 

 serves are those individuals which are capable of perpet- 

 uating something higher or more perfect. A species is 

 an aggregate of individuals in which some new feature 

 of excellence is universally present, and from the very 

 fact of their possessing this new feature they will stand 

 a better chance of being preserved as a whole, than 

 another group of individuals which lack this higher or 

 advantageous characteristic. To return to the analogy 

 of the dry goods merchants, which, by the way, is a 

 true analogy because natural selection is actually in 

 operation in this instance: their struggle for existence, 



