GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS 133 



bian. One noticeable thing was their segregation, 

 whether in the mica pools, or in two other smaller 

 ones near by, in which I found them. Each held 

 a pure culture of Redfins, and I found that this 

 was no accident, but aided and enforced bv the 

 tads themselves. Twice, while I w^atched them, 

 I saw definite pursuit of an alien pollywog, — the 

 larva of the Scarlet-thighed Leaf -walker {Fhyl- 

 lohates inguinalis), — which fled headlong. The 

 second time the attack was so persistent that the 

 lesser tadpole leaped from the water, wriggled 

 its way to a damp heap of leaves, and slipped 

 down between them. For tadpoles to take such 

 action as this was as reasonable as for an orchid 

 to push a fellow blossom aside on the approach 

 of a fertilizing hawk-moth. This momentary co- 

 operation, and the concerted elimination of the 

 undesired tadpole, affected me as the thought of 

 the first consciousness of power of synchronous 

 rhythm coming to ape men : it seemed a spark of 

 tadpole genius — an adumbration of possibilities 

 which now would end in the dull consciousness 

 of the future frog, but which might, in past ages, 

 have been a vital link in tlie development of an 

 ancestral Ereops. 



My Redfins were assuredly no common tad- 



