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need not say which must do so. My theory, it is true, here faila 

 to explain the very point it undertook to interpret; but never 

 mind that. I would call it a miracle, only that I don't believe in 

 miracles. 



I believe that Natural Selection has turned the black grouse to 

 that colour to be like peat earth for its protection. I don't at all 

 know what its colour was before, and you remind me that it is 

 not at all of the colour of peat earth, but a most glossy black, and 

 that the hen bird is of a totally different colour. Never mind ; 

 I don't care. 



I believe in a bear " swimming about for hours with a widely open 

 mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects on the water." " Very~ 

 like a whale !" I think I hear you saying, but I can't help it if 

 you do. " I see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered by 

 Natural Selection more and more aquatic in their habits, with 

 longer and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as 

 monstrous as a whale." Don't laugh, I beg you. It's all of a 

 piece with my whole argument, for I have said all along that it 

 is easy for Natural Selection to fit any animal for any changed 

 habits whatever. " It is difficult to tell and immaterial for us, 

 whether habits generally change first and structure afterwards, 

 or whether slight modifications of structure lead to changed 

 habits." How can I tell you ? All is fish that comes to my net. 



I believe what I have just said, though it may perhaps be 

 suggested that if the bear was determined to live in the " dark 

 unfathomed caves" of the ocean before he was quite fitted for it,, 

 he might find that he was in a sorry plight, and that Natural 

 Selection had led him into a somewhat awkward mistake, not 

 much to his benefit ; or if, on the other hand, he had to 

 wait above-borde till he was fitted to go down below, he 

 would fare but badly and on very " short commons " among 

 the mountains and forests. A demi-semi-bear-cum- whale would 

 be perhaps an " odd fish" to look at, but then, you see, it is quite 

 as easy for you to swallow my story of the bear as it is for 

 the bear to swallow the flies, so you ought to be very much- 

 obliged to me for telling you so pretty a fairy tale. 



I believe that if an animal or bird has more than one habit, 

 that is a proof that it is in a transition state. Why not believe 



