RUDIMENTARY ORGANS 191 



it would not be preserved by natural selection, nor 

 in any other possible way, so far as I can see. The 

 spurs are in the best possible position on the legs for 

 combat. Why did they appear in the best place and 

 nowhere else? As useless rudiments they would be 

 quite as likely to survive in one place as in another? - 

 In a few instances they are found on the wing, in a 

 position that renders them most effective. 



That nature should locate them and preserve them 

 as rudiments in these two places alone is not credible. 

 As rudiments, or, even as useful appendages for com- 

 bat, they ought to be found in other positions. There 

 is no reason why spurs might not be evolved by natur- 

 al selection, if they can be evolved at all, in any posi- 

 tion where they would be of use, though not neces- 

 sarily of the greatest possible use. For example, they 

 might be of use on the front of the leg or on the ex- 

 ternal side, though of less use than where they are 

 now located. 



If spurs could not have been preserved by natural 

 selection through their rudimentary stage, why assume 

 that they have been evolved according to this law? 

 If they could survive through the critical rudimentary 

 period till they became of use, why not assume that 

 their evolution was continued according to the same 

 law? The fact is, however, that we know of no law 

 according to which they could have been evolved. 



Mr. Darwin says: "When the male is furnished 

 with leg-spurs, the female almost always exhibits 

 rudiments of them — the rudiments sometimes consist- 

 ing of a mere scale, as with the species of Gallus. 

 Hence it might be argued that the females had aborig- 

 inally been furnished with well-developed spurs, but 

 that these had subsequently been lost either through 

 disuse or natural selection. But if this view be ad- 

 mitted, it would have to be extended to innumerable 



