12 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



do other eggs on distinct ordinates and of an entirely different 

 type arrange themselves in an orderly manner ? 



This brings us to another point. The curves show that the 

 British influence is still felt in America. There are distinct 

 elevations in the American curves as they cross the ordinates 

 of 22 and 70. These elevations, which may represent the 

 conservatism of certain individuals which still retain British 

 instincts, are perhaps of less interest than the elevations on 

 the British curves which lie immediately under the American 

 culminating points. One wonders why ruthless natural selec- 

 tion should have spared these particular individuals. 



There has been a general reduction in the shape of practi- 

 cally all the eggs since the introduction of the birds into this 

 country, and this reduction has taken place not only in the 

 neighborhood of the new mean, but also at the extremes. Not 

 only has the old culminating point been shifted, but the entire 

 curve has been shifted. The larger eggs have become smaller, 

 the medium eggs have become smaller, the smaller eggs have 

 become smaller; and all the eggs, whether of the ellipsoidal or 

 spheroidal type, have become more nearly spherical. 



Concluding, then, that the evidence does not favor the view 

 that the American egg is the result of the action of natural 

 selection upon fortuitous variations, let us examine the alter- 

 native, that is, the variations are due to the molding influence 

 of a new environment. 



A new environment, offering new food, peculiar climatic 

 conditions, etc., might affect a large number of individuals in 

 certain peculiar and definite ways, and it is evident that the 

 respective curves of variation given in Diagrams I and II are 

 in harmony with such a conception of the march of transforma- 

 tion. It is, indeed, a phenomenon that is seemingly of the 

 nature of a "mutation" (Scott, '94). This view, moreover, is 

 not contrary to the later ideas of Darwin, who distinctly stated 

 that the greatest error which he had committed was in not 

 allowing sufficient weight to the direct action of environment 

 independent of natural selection. 



Moreover, if the new environment is directly responsible for 

 the new variations, the question of time is no longer a disturb- 



