38 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



tained in more modes than one as, for example, by the 

 trunk of the elephant. This is, indeed, true, but then none 

 of the African Ungulata 7 have, nor do they appear ever to 

 have had, any proboscis whatsoever; nor have they ac- 

 quired such a development as to allow them to rise on their 

 hind-limbs and graze on trees in a kangaroo attitude, nor a 

 power of climbing, nor, as far as known, any other modifi- 

 cation tending to compensate for the comparative shortness 

 of the neck. Again, it may perhaps be said that leaf-eating 

 forms are exceptional, and that therefore the struggle to 

 attain high branches would not affect many Ungulates. 

 But surely, when these severe droughts necessary for the 

 theory occur, the ground vegetation is supposed to be 

 exhausted ; and, indeed, the giraffe is quite capable of feed- 

 ing from off the ground. So that, in these cases, the other 

 Ungulata must have taken to leaf-eating or have starved, 

 and thus must have had any accidental long-necked varieties 

 favored and preserved exactly as the long-necked varieties 

 of the giraffe are supposed to have been favored and pre- 

 served. 



The argument as to the different modes of preservation 

 has been very well put by Mr. Wallace, 8 in reply to the 

 objection that " color, being dangerous, should not exist in 

 Nature." This objection appears similar to mine ; as I say 

 that a giraffe neck, being needful, there should be many 

 animals with it, while the objector noticed by Mr. Wallace 

 says, " A dull color being needful, all animals should be so 

 colored." And Mr. Wallace shows in reply how porcupines, 

 tortoises, and mussels, very hard-coated bombadier beetles, 

 stinging insects, and nauseous-tasted caterpillars, can afford 

 to be brilliant by the various means of active defence or 

 passive protection they possess, other than obscure colora- 



7 The elephants of Africa and India, with their extinct allies, consti. 

 tute the order Proboscidea, and do not belong to the Ungulata. 



8 See " Natural Selection," pp. 60-75. 



