II.] INCIPIENT STRUCTURES. 63 



" rattling " and " expanding " snakes. As to any power 

 of fascination exercised by means of these actions, the 

 most distinguished naturalists, certainly the most distin- 

 guished erpetologists, entirely deny it, and it is opposed 

 to the careful observations of those known to us. 26 



COBEA. 



(Copied, by permission, from Sir Andrew Smith? a ''Reptiles of South, Africa") 



The mode of formation of both the eye and the ear of 

 the highest animals is such that, if it is (as most Darwini- 

 ans assert processes of development to be) a record of the 

 actual steps by which such structures were first evolved in 

 antecedent forms, it almost amounts to a demonstration 



26 1 am again indebted to the kindness of Mr. A. D. Bartlett, among 

 others. That gentleman informs me that, so far from any mental emo- 

 tion being produced in rabbits by the presence and movements of snakes, 

 he has actually seen a male and female rabbit satisfy the sexual instinct 

 in that presence, a rabbit being seized by a snake when in cottu. 



