IN MODERN SCIENCE. 



209 



up inside the shell of an »-^^g, and that about 

 a month before it was apparently nothing but 

 a mass of albumen and of fatty oils." 



On this the duke very properly remarks that 

 any idea of training and experience is absolute- 

 ly excluded, because it " assumes the pre-exist- 

 ence of the very powers for which it professes 

 to account." He then turns to the idea that 

 animals are merely automata or "machines." 

 Here it is to be observed that the essential 

 idea of a machine is twofold. First, it is a 

 merely mechanical structure put together to 

 do certain things ; secondly, it must be related 

 to a contriver and constructor. If we think 

 proper to call the young merganser a machine, 

 we must admit both of these characters, more 

 especially as the bird is in every way a more 

 marvellous machine than any of human con- 

 struction. He concludes his notice of this case 

 with the following suggestive words : 



" This is a method of escape which cannot be 

 resorted to successfully except by birds whose 

 coloring is adapted to the purpose by a close 

 assimilation with the coloring of surrounding 

 objects. The old bird would not have been 

 concealed on the same ground, and would 

 never itself resort to the same method of es- 



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