356 NATURAL HISTORY. 



may notice in this connection, in the insect world, the 

 special provisions against the cold in the cocoons which 

 are to remain through the winter to another season 



( 413 )- 



620. The individual adaptations seen in the different 

 species are endless in variety. Those which I have 

 brought to your notice, in passing through the four sub- 

 kingdoms of the animal world, are exceedingly few in 

 comparison with all that might be gathered up, and new 

 ones are coming to view every day in the researches of 

 zoologists. Each species has its peculiar habits, and, of 

 course, its corresponding adaptations in its structure. 

 The study in this respect has no end, and the fertility of 

 the wisdom and skill of the Deity is seen to have no 

 bounds. The humblest observer who enters this field 

 may find many things that no one has yet recorded, and 

 thus may be a contributor to zoological science. 



621. Of the individual adaptations I will notice a few 

 of those only which are of a marked exceptional charac- 

 ter. The whale is a Mammal having lungs, and yet it 

 lives in the water like the fishes. For this it must have 

 an especial adaptation in the arrangement of the circu- 

 lating system, as described in 187. So also, as it is a 

 warm-blooded animal, its heat must be kept from escap- 

 ing too rapidly by a special provision, and this must be 

 in consonance with its fish-like habits ( 186). The bat 

 is a Mammal, and yet, as it is destined to get its liveli- 

 hood on the wing and in the dark, it has peculiarly con- 

 structed wings for this purpose ( 58, 59, and 60). Most 

 fishes are shaped with reference to ease and rapidity of 

 movement ( 353). Hence they are like boats for rac- 

 ing, long, spindle-shaped ; and they have no projections 

 like a shoulder to prevent their gliding swiftly through 

 the water. But there are some exceptions, as in the 

 short, big-mouthed Lophius (Fig. 172). Its habits ex- 

 plain the reason of the exception. The brain of man is 

 but the fortieth or fiftieth part of the weight of his whole 



