The Making of Species 



ally improbable dogma in the presence of a great 

 and consistent array of opposing facts." 



Men of science not infrequently charge the 

 clergy with adhering to dogma in face of oppos- 

 ing facts ; it seems to us that many of the 

 apostles of science are in this respect worse 

 offenders than the most orthodox of Churchmen. 



The example of the mollusca of the Sandwich 

 Islands is by no means a solitary one. D. 

 Dewar cited some interesting cases in a paper 

 recently read before the Royal Society of Arts 

 (p. 103 of vol. Ivii. of the Society's Journal) : 



" The Indian robins present even greater 

 difficulties to those who profess to pin their faith 

 to the all-sufficiency of natural selection. Robins 

 are found in nearly all parts of India, and fall 

 into two species, the brown-backed (Thamnobia 

 cambaiensis] and the black-backed Indian Robin 

 (Thamnobia fulicata). The former occurs only 

 in Northern India, and the latter is confined to 

 the southern portion of the peninsula. The hen 

 of each species is a sandy brown bird with a 

 patch of brick-red feathers under the tail, so that 

 we cannot tell by merely looking at a hen to 

 which of the two species she belongs. The 

 cock of the South Indian form is, in winter, a 

 glossy black bird, with a white bar in the wing, 

 and the characteristic red patch under the tail. 

 The cock of the northern species, as his name 

 implies, has a sandy-brown back, which contrasts 



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