86 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



close print, we cannot be surprised that such a labour was 

 not undertaken. 



It is hardly possible for any one who has not collected 

 some special group of insects in countries where they 

 abound, to realise what the numbers given above really 

 mean. In the Malay Islands alone, I myself collected over 

 a thousand distinct species of one of the most beautiful 

 families of beetles — the Longicorns — of which about 900 

 were previously quite unknown. Of another immense 

 family — the Curculionidae, or Weevils — I obtained also about 

 1000 species, of which the same proportion were new. While 

 the former group are remarkable for grace of form, variety 

 of marking, and often for exquisite coloration, the latter 

 are equally interesting for their endless modifications of 

 shape, more sober but beautifully marked bodies, strangely 

 bossed surfaces, and, occasionally, the most brilliant metallic 

 colours. 



The interest of making such collections, in which the 

 variety was so great as to seem absolutely endless, may be 

 imagined by any lover of nature. But the interest in 

 their study has been intensified by the firm conviction — the 

 growth of half a century of thought upon the subject — that 

 every detail of these wonderful modifications of structure, 

 form, and coloration have been due to general laws in 

 operation for countless ages, and that every minutest 

 character, as they occurred through successive variations 

 and became fixed in each species, had a definite purpose; 

 that is, were of use to the creatures which exhibited them. 

 This, however, will be shown later on, when we have to deal 

 with the more important factors of evolution — variation 

 and heredity. 



The Species of Birds 



We will now pass on to the most familiar, the most 

 beautiful, and the most wonderful of all living things — the 

 birds. These form one of the culminating lines of develop- 

 ment of the great world of life ; they are the most 

 specialised of all the higher animals ; and so far as perfec- 

 tion of organised structure is concerned may be considered 

 to hold a higher place than the mammals themselves. 



