56 



THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. 



[CHAP. 



reptiles. Such are the rattle of the rattlesnake, and the 

 expanding neck (or hood) of the cobra, the former seeming 

 to warn the ear of the intended victim, as the latter warns 

 the eye. It is true we cannot perhaps demonstrate that the 

 victims are alarmed and warned, but, on Darwinian prin- 

 ciples, they certainly ought to be so ; for the rashest and 



RATTLESNAKE. 



most incautious of the animals preyed on would always 

 tend to fall victims, and the existing individuals being the 

 long-descended progeny of the timid and cautious, ought 

 to have an inherited tendency to distrust, amongst other 

 objects, both "rattling " and " expanding " snakes. As to 

 any power of fascination exercised by means of these 



