INTRODUCTION. 9 



For the latter day Gilbert White must be an 

 evolutionist down to the tips of his toes. The 

 Darwinian way must be as familiar to him as the 

 footpath from his rectory to his church. His 

 very spectacles must be tinged with the doctrine, 

 and his mind must employ its methods as easily 

 as his lungs breathe the air. There is every 

 reason to hope that the future will bring us seers 

 of this type, and it is with the desire that I may 

 in some slight measure hasten their advent that I 

 here invite attention to the light which Darwinism 

 throws upon the everyday world about us. 



It will be a good way to show how wonderfully 

 the amateur student may gain both in pleasure 

 and knowledge from the new philosophy — and at 

 the same time will be consistent with the methods 

 I am recommending — if we briefly discuss some 

 points in the natural history of the naturalist 

 himself. Undoubtedly his passion for outdoor 

 life, and for watching and recording natural phe- 

 nomena, dates back to the time when the exist- 

 . ence of our forefathers depended upon success in 

 hunting. We are all of us aware that only a few 

 thousand years ago the ancestors of the modern 

 European and American had only reached a stage 

 of culture still found among savages which depend 

 entirely upon the chase. Plentiful evidences are 



