1 86 



CAUSES OF EXTINCTION 



CHAP. VIII 



living monkeys ? and yet in this comparative rarity, we should 

 have the plainest evidence of less favourable conditions for 

 their existence. To admit that species generally become rare 

 before they become extinct — to feel no surprise at the com- 

 parative rarity of one species with another, and yet to call in 

 some extraordinary agent and to marvel greatly when a species 

 ceases to exist, appears to me much the same as to admit that 

 sickness in the individual is the prelude to death — to feel no 

 surprise at sickness — but when the sick man dies, to wonder, 

 and to believe that he died through violence. 



LADIES COMBS, BANDA ORIENTAL. 



