95 



" But I think that, to a certain extent, quotations from a work, 

 if not commented on by the reviewer, may be taken by the 

 general public, however erroneously, to be endorsed with his 

 approval. I feel sure that it is not the case in this instance ; 

 but, on the other account, may I ask you to admit a very few 

 lines from me in deprecation of the adoption of the Darwinian 

 view which you observe may be seen to run through the whole 

 of the book under review. 



" How any persons can ever have brought themselves to 

 adduce in support of a preconceived theory the most extravagant 

 idea that the exterior forms or appearance of (so-called) species 

 of birds have been produced by the admiration of males for 

 females, or vice versa, does seem to me one of the most as- 

 tounding notions that has ever been promulgated ; nay, as put 

 forth, it appears, in the work under your review, even parts of 

 the species, as, e.g., parts of the wings of butterflies. That 

 some species of butterflies are poisonous or distasteful to birds, 

 I do not for a moment believe. That many insects closely 

 resemble the tree or leaf they harbour upon is nothing new, nor 

 do those exceptional cases prove one jot of the Darwinian theory. 

 That a beetle covered with long hairs does not try to hide itself 

 because it instinctively feels that its being so covered gives it a 

 protection from its enemies, so that it need not further fear them 

 is contradicted at once by the fact that thousands of beetles of 

 the most bright and resplendent colours take no pains whatever 

 to hide themselves therefore ' under leaves,' but fly about from 

 flower to flower in the open sunshine, and the more so the more 

 brightly the sun shines. Such are the ChrysomeUdce, even in this 

 country, and many of the Elateridce in foreign countries China, 

 &c. most, if not all of them, being day-fliers. 



" Such theories remind one of the conundrum ' Why is a 

 riddle like a monkey ?' ' Because it is far-fetched, and full of 

 nonsense/ 



" Sir, is there any limit to human credulity ? It appears not. 



" F. 0. MORRIS. 

 " Nunburnholme Rectory, 



" Hayton, York, 



" December 4, 1874." 



