MY SOMALI BOOK 83 



extremes, it is impossible to adopt this view of a bird 

 which habitually perches in the most conspicuous 

 position it can find, while its nesting-place is in a hole. 

 Nor can we, to my mind, account for the brilliancy of 

 the wings by Darwin's theory of sexual selection, 

 where male and female are so much alike. Wallace's 

 theory of " mutual recognition " is plausible in the 

 case of migratory birds, but is quite unproven. There 

 remains the possibility that this conspicuous coloura- 

 tion is a " warning pattern." This might be the case 

 if the roller itself or some similarly coloured species 

 were unpleasant to the taste, or for some other reason 

 objectionable to the birds of prey who are the only 

 enemies that could be affected. Presumably this is 

 possible, but I know of no evidence that it is so. Other- 

 wise this is merely one more of the many instances of 

 natural phenomena where, in spite of all the researches 

 of science^ we must confess our absolute inability to 

 answer with any certainty the question, " Why ? " 



We believe in the variations and development 

 through the ages of the various forms of life by the 

 immutable laws of evolution, and we are justified in 

 seeking to discover what those laws are. Some little 

 knowledge we have attained, but ever and again we 

 realise, as here in the pigment of a bird's wing, how 

 much remains hidden from our ken. If we believe — 

 and how can we not believe ? — in the Master-Mind and 

 Hand, that conceived and wrote down those change- 

 less laws which we are painfully trying to spell out, 

 why not be content further to believe that, whatever 

 the working of the laws that have produced the beauty 

 we admire in the creature, the reason for the existence 



