NEW GLEANINGS IN FIELD AND WOOD 



some animals than of others. The frog and the 

 toad lay hundreds of eggs, the fishes spawn 

 thousands, but most birds lay only five or six 

 eggs. 



A spendthrift wkh one hand, Nature is often a 

 miser with the other. She lets loose an army of 

 worms upon the forests, and then sends an ich- 

 neumon-fly to check them. She wastes no perfume 

 or color upon the flowers which depend upon the 

 wind to scatter their pollen. Cross-fertilization is 

 dear to her, and she invents many ingenious ways 

 to bring it about, as in certain orchids. She will 

 rob the bones of the fowl of their lime to perfect the 

 shell of the egg. She wastes no wit or cunning on 

 the porcupine or on the skunk, because she has 

 already endowed each of them with a perfect 

 means of defense. 



Two things Nature is not chary of fear and 

 pain. She heaps the measure here because fear 

 puts her creatures on the safe side; it saves them 

 from many real dangers. What dangers have 

 lurked for man and for most wild things in the 

 dark! How silly seems the fear of the horse! a 

 fluttering piece of paper may throw him in a panic. 

 Pain, too, safeguards us; it shields us against real 

 dangers. The pains of childbirth are probably no 

 check upon offspring, because the ecstasy of 

 procreation, especially on the part of the male, 

 overcomes all other considerations. 



209 



