496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



NATURE AS DRAMA AND ENGINERY. 



BY GEORGE ILES. 



PROF. EDWARD B. POULTON, of Oxford, in closing his 

 course of lectures at Columbia College, last February, de- 

 scribed the cordial reception extended him on his arrival in New 

 York. Taking a stroll through Central Park, he had walked but 

 a few paces when a gray squirrel ran from a tree to his feet in the 

 friendliest way possible. ' " The perfect trustfulness of the little 

 creature," said Prof. Poulton, " told me at once the most impor- 

 tant fact of its life that here in the midst of a teeming popula- 

 tion it was certain of kind treatment. I inferred that a commu- 

 nity kind to animals must be interested in them, must be fond of 

 studying them in the very best place, their field of life." Nor 

 was the naturalist disappointed ; he found his New York audiences 

 enthusiastic, and his lecture room, crowded to the door, contained 

 less than half those who sought admission. Just as his observa- 

 tion of the squirrel in the act of soliciting luncheon told him 

 what could never be disclosed in an inspection of the rodent, how- 

 ever skillfully stuffed in a museum or dissected in a laboratory, 

 so, as the readers of his Colors of Animals well know, Prof. 

 Poulton has discovered much of profound interest in natural his- 

 tory by keeping to the unfenced field so fruitfully scanned by the 

 eye of Charles Darwin. Somewhat as in the case of his great 

 master, his work owes its reward and derives its charm from its 

 inclusive breadth of outlook. Specimens of hornet clear- wing 

 moths might be collected for years, dissected under the micro- 

 scope with the utmost care, and classified with the nicest pre- 

 cision, without casting a single ray of light on the prime ques- 

 tions, What forces have molded the form and habits of this 

 insect, and why are its hues and markings as we find them ? Let 

 the moth, however, be observed in its field of life, and the agen- 

 cies which have made it what it is come clearly into view. Among 

 the insects which share its woods and meadows will be noticed a 

 wasp ; while this wasp neither preys upon the moth nor in any 

 perceptible degree competes with it, the two insects sustain to 

 each other a most vital relation. In its sting the wasp has so 

 formidable and thoroughly advertised a weapon that by closely 

 resembling the wasp the moth, though stingless, is able to live on 

 its neighbor's reputation and escape attack from the birds and 

 insects which otherwise would prey upon it. And so far is the 

 mimicry carried that when the moth is caught in the hand it 

 curves its body with an attitude so wasplike as seriously to strain 

 the nerves of its captor. How came about so elaborate a piece of 

 masquerade ? At first, the explanation is, there was a faint gen- 



