no tHE COMING OF MAN 



ought to succeed. Birds fulfill certain conditions of fitness 

 better. We remember that the whole process of evolution 

 down to this time has tended to the production of muscular 

 forms with well framed skeletons possessing swift locomo- 

 tion. The bird is a high-pressure engine of marvellous swift- 

 ness, with hot blood, keen sense-organs and a good or ex- 

 cellent brain. The bird is certainly of a far finer and higher 

 type than the reptile. What chance has the small plodding 

 mammal? 



We are in Tertiary or Cenozoic time. The exit or disap- 

 pearance of the higher reptiles is as striking as their entrance 

 to the stage; only the inferior have survived. Birds, like 

 seme precocious children, have not ^fulfilled the promise 

 of their youth. The prize will surely fall to some mam- 

 mal. 



There are splendid carnivora, cats or tigers, with powerful, 

 sleek, agile, athletic bodies and long saber-like canine teeth. 

 The herbivorous horses and deer have developed long slender 

 legs, and have taken to flight. The rodents have sought refuge 

 in holes in the ground or on the trees. In the trees we see 

 lemurs or apes, our " furry arboreal ancestors with pointed 

 ears." The cats are having their day. They deserve it. 

 But in Quaternary, Psychozoic time the descendant of lemur 

 and ape reigns unchallenged and supreme. Even the cat can- 

 not hold its ground before the wits, traps, and missiles of 

 man. 



It is a strange story. If we have pictured to ourselves the 

 struggle for existence as a mere battle of brute with brute, 

 where the fittest were always the strongest and biggest, we 

 have erred completely. In fact the race is never to the swift 

 nor the battle to the strong. Nature herself in the long run 

 repudiates the strictly gladiatorial theory of the struggle for 

 existence. So repeated and constant an outcome must have 

 some explanation. 



One important fact has been already noticed. The external 

 protective skeleton of the mollusk was simple, easy to build, 

 gave immediate tangible advantage, and developed rapidly but 



