Nature's First Law 



setting their caps for a bride. The English sparrow 

 need attempt nothing more showy than a black 

 cravat to impress his easily pleased sweetheart. 



Young birds of either sex and of many species 

 usually look like their mother when there is any- 

 thing to be lost by following their father's shining 

 example. In the latter case young males come into 

 their splendid heritage of feathers by degrees, that 

 they may be as inconspicuous as possible while 

 learning the ways of this wicked world probably 

 not because their heads might be turned before 

 maturity. Thus it takes the purple finch two years 

 to perfect his raspberry colour, and during his youth 

 he, too, looks sparrowy, betraying his kinship. 

 Partly because the plumage of no group of birds 

 is more admirably protective in their environment, 

 the sparrows are inheriting the earth. 



WHAT BEAUTY COSTS 



Necessarily, every bird has the means to conceal 

 or defend itself, or to escape from its natural foes; 

 but when, after ages of natural selection, especially 

 beautiful feathers developed on many, neither shot- 

 guns nor milliners had entered into the birds' cal- 

 culations. How could the snowy white heron of 

 the Gulf States have foreseen that the exquisite 

 plumes (aigrettes) that he wears on his back as a 

 wedding decoration would some day be transferred 

 to the unthinking heads of vain women in such 

 enormous numbers as to cause the extermination of 

 his species? And on the face of it, would it not 

 seem ridiculous for any woman to wish to wear a 



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