NATURAL SELECTION 87 



When sight had attained high excellence, power of flight might 

 have been further developed. In this respect, then, we may 

 doubt whether Nature has been in a different position from the 

 breeder. One difference, however, is very marked. Our 

 domestic breeds have in some cases along with their "points" 

 developed great delicacy. Nature always maintains health and 

 strength whatever " points" she may have in view. 



It is very easy to under-rate the importance of small things, import- 

 small points of superiority, small weaknesses and so forth, and small 

 yet this is a subject in which we have continued object lessons, points 

 Two races are brave beyond dispute, but one will stand a little 

 longer under fire than the other, and it is this little that makes 

 all the difference in the struggle. Two young men are about 

 on a par and seem likely to run neck and neck in the race of life, 

 but an almost imperceptible superiority in one seems to act with 

 cumulative effect and in twenty years, say, he is miles ahead. 

 The flora of some oceanic island may seem to show every sign 

 of vigour, but continental plants come in and gradually oust it. 

 The plants of the high Alps will, many of them, grow well 

 at low levels, for they thrive in English gardens. But in the 

 Swiss valleys below their favourite habitat they would have to 

 compete with other plants that in those situations have some 

 slight superiority. The gamekeeper makes war upon magpies 

 and jays impartially. The magpies he often exterminates ; of 

 the jays perhaps they are better at taking cover some remnant 

 is always left. When a new field is opened for living organisms 

 to settle upon, then the smallest differences tell. When a glacier 

 stream has swept over a Swiss valley and made it an expanse of 

 bare stones, then there is a rush of many plants for the vacant 

 space, and the victory is to those who (to make a bull) know how 

 to find soil where there is none. Such circumstances bring out 

 unnoticed points of superiority. The details of adaptation (like 

 Shakespeare's minor characters) are worked out with astonishing 

 nicety and excellence. Burs are equipped with tiny hooklets, 

 without which they would be utterly inefficient. If in a bird's 

 flight feathers you examine all the machinery for the interlock- 

 ing of the webs, you find it perfect and admirable down to 



