CREATION BY LAW. 241 



beyond the edges of some extinct volcano, whose 

 crater is now filled with a special flora. Many of 

 the great mountains of the Andes have each of 

 them species peculiar to themselves. On Chim- 

 borazo and Cotopaxi, and other summits, special 

 forms of Humming Birds are found in special 

 zones of vegetation even close up to the limits of 

 perpetual snow. Again, many of the Islands have 

 species peculiar to themselves. The little island of 

 Juan Fernandez, 300 miles from the mainland, has 

 three species peculiar to itself, of which two are so 

 distinct from all others known, that they cannot 

 for a moment be confounded with any of them.* 



It is impossible not to see, in such compli- 

 cated facts as these, that the creation of new 

 Species has followed some plan in which mere 

 variety has been in itself an object and an aim. 

 The divergence of form is not a divergence which 

 can have arisen by way of natural consequence, 

 merely from comparative advantage and disad- 

 vantage in the struggle for existence. Bills highly 

 specialised in form are certainly not those which 

 would give the greatest advantage to birds which 



* Gould's Trochilida; 



