NATURE AND ANIMAL LIFE 



are largely determined by their organization. This 

 appoints the bird to fly, the fish to swim, the snake 

 to glide, and man to walk and stand erect. It ap- 

 points the woodpecker to bore or drill the trees, 

 the snipe to probe the mud, this kind to catch 

 insects, that one to catch fish, this one to live on 

 seeds or fruit, the other to prey upon game, and 

 so on. 



Now, the so-called intelligence of the lower ani- 

 mals is largely like that of the rills that find their 

 way to the sea, or of the seeds of the plants that 

 find their way to their proper habitat. Marsh plants 

 find their way to the marshes, hill plants find their 

 way to the hills. The spores of the black knot seem 

 to hunt out every plum-tree in the land. The rats 

 and the mice find their way to your new house or 

 new barn, because they are constantly on the search 

 for new fields. The squirrels find the acorn-grove 

 and the birds the cherry-trees for the same reason. 

 Their necessities for food send them in all directions 

 till they hit the right spots. 



Nature plays the principal part in the lives of all 

 creatures, man included, supplying motives, im- 

 pulses, opportunities, the guidance of organization, 

 the inheritance of instinct, the stimulus or the check 

 of environment, the bent of race, family, tempera- 

 ment, the lure of plenty, the bar of scarcity, the 

 potency of soil, climate, geography. The birds 

 come north when a warm wave brings them; the 

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