CREATION BY LAW. 237 



abundance in other quarters of the globe where 

 there are no Humming Birds. 



And here we come on the curious facts of 

 geographical distribution, — a class of facts which, 

 as much as any other, suggest some specific 

 methods as having been followed in the work 

 of Creation. Humming Birds are absolutely con- 

 fined to the great Continent of America with 

 its adjacent islands. Within those limits there 

 is every range of climate, and there are particu- 

 lar species of Humming Bird adapted to every 

 region where a flowering vegetation can subsist. 

 It is therefore neither climate nor food which 

 confines the Humming Birds to the New World. 

 What is it, then ? The idea of " centres of Crea- 

 tion " is at once suggested to the mind. It 

 seems as if the Humming Birds were introduced 

 at one spot, and as if they had spread over the 

 whole Continent which was accessible to them 

 from that spot. They are absent elsewhere, sim- 

 ply because from that spot the other Continents 

 of the world were inaccessible to them. But if 

 these ideas are suggested to the mind by the 

 general aspect of this family as a whole, they are 



