ERRONEOUS DEDUCTION. 2O3 



distribution. 1 It is clear that the wide range 

 of a species, instead of depending on a high 

 degree of specialization for any one environ- 

 ment, depends rather on the absence of it. He 

 clearly recognized and pointed out the danger 

 of extinction to a species of limited range, but 

 nowhere recognized explicitly the connection, 

 on the one hand, between a high degree of 

 specialization for a particular environment or 

 mode of life and restriction of the species to 

 that particular environment, or the relation, on 

 the other hand, between wide range over the 

 earth and generalized characters which give 

 some general advantage that would be useful 

 under all or nearly all circumstances into which 

 the species might be thrown. 



He said: "If we ask ourselves why this or 

 that species is rare, we answer that something 

 is unfavorable in its conditions of life; but 

 what that something is we can hardly ever tell." 

 He insisted that the improved and modified 

 forms would crowd out and exterminate the less 

 well adapted forms; but did not hit upon the 

 truth that, the more beautifully adapted a 

 species is to a definite locality and set of con- 

 ditions, the less it is adapted to enter into a 

 general competition for the possession of the 



1 Origin of Species, pp. 42-44. 



