242 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



have equal access to the abundant Flora of an im- 

 mense Continent. Some form of bill adapted to the 

 probing or piercing of all flowers with almost equal 

 ease, would seem to be the form most favourable to 

 the multiplication and spread of Humming Birds. 

 Continued approximation to some common type 

 would seem to be quite as natural, and a much 

 more advantageous kind of change as regards ad- 

 vantage in the struggle for existence, than end- 

 less divergence and special adaptation to limited 

 spheres of enjoyment. At all events, we may 

 safely say that mere advantage, in Mr Darwin's 

 sense, is not the rule which has chiefly guided 

 Creative Power in the Origin of these new Species. 

 It seems rather to have been a rule having for its 

 object the mere multiplying of Life, and the fitting 

 of new Forms for new spheres of enjoyment, ac- 

 cording as these might arise out of corresponding 

 changes in other departments of the organic world. 

 If, now, we turn to the other kind of specific 

 distinction between Humming Birds, viz., that 

 which consists in differences in the mere colour- 

 ing and disposition of the plumage, we shall find 

 the same phenomena still more remarkable. In 



