carry marrow bones and Tortoises high 

 into the air and drop them upon stones 

 so as to obtain their contents. Yet he 

 is not beyond making serious mistakes, 

 for one of them is said to have taken 

 the bald head of the great poet 

 Aeschyhis for a smooth stone, dropped 

 a Tortoise upon it, and secured in lieu 

 of a luscious meal the lamentable 

 demise of one of the greatest of men. 

 A true view of Nature leads us to 

 regard whatever we find in an organ- 

 ism not as a perfect instrument to a 

 given end, but as a remnant of what 

 may have been produced by desire on the 

 part of ancestors more or less remote. 

 Indeed, it has well been said that our 

 whole body is but a museum of antiqu- 

 ity of no practical interest, but of great 

 historical importance. What we find 

 in ourselves aud elsewhere among 

 living things is not to be regarded as 

 creations perfectly adapted to given 

 ends, for there is no perfect adaptation. 

 Plants and animals are continually 



striving for it, but conditions change 

 more rapidly than they and the chase 

 is unsuccessful. Perfect adaptation 

 would be stagnation. 



A manifest design of Nature is that 

 things may live. But death is the 

 rule and life the exception. Out of a 

 million seeds but one can grow. All 

 may make something of a struggle ; a 

 few fortunate individuals thrive. Not 

 the fittest, but usually some among 

 those most fit. The whole range of 

 life from the Bathybius Haeckelii to 

 the tailless Ape exhibits a grand strug- 

 gle for perfect adaptation with a greater 

 or less failure in store for every indi- 

 vidual. The human race is carrying 

 on the same enterprise with the same 

 results. The instant we seem to be 

 fitted for our environment there comes 

 a change of affairs that leaves us con- 

 fronted with a problem just as inter- 

 esting and urgent as the old one we 

 flattered ourselves we were able to 

 solve. 



REASONING POWERS OF BIRDS. 



4 

 d 



(^ HERE is something very re- 

 markable in the almost reason- 

 ing powers manifested occa- 

 sionally by birds in eluding 

 pursuit or in turning attention from 

 their nests and young, but in few is 

 this more noticeable than in the Duck 

 tribes. In Capt. Black's narrative of 

 his Arctic land expedition the follow- 

 ing instance of this is given : 



"One of his companions, Mr. King, 

 having shot a female Duck, fired 

 again, and, as he thought, disabled its 

 male companion. Accordingly, leav- 

 ing the dead bird, which he had the 

 mortification of seeing shortly after- 

 ward carried ofif by one of the white- 

 headed Eagles, he waded into the 



water after the drake, which, far from 

 being fluttered or alarmed, remained 

 motionless, as if waiting to be taken 

 up. Still, as he neared it, it glided 

 easily away through innumerable little 

 nooks and windings. Several times 

 he reached out his hand to seize it, 

 and having at last with great patience 

 managed to coop it up in a corner, 

 from which there appeared to be no 

 escape, he was triumphantly bending 

 down to take it, when, to his utter 

 astonishment, it looked around at him, 

 cried 'Quack!' and then flew away 

 so strongly that he was convinced he 

 had never hit it at all. The bird's 

 object clearly was to draw the gunner 

 away from its companion." 



43 



