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The Study of Animal Life 



fleet stag ; the dolphin gamboling in the waves ; the lithe 

 lizards which flash across the path and are gone, and the 

 snake flowing like a silver river ; the buoyant swimming of 

 fishes and all manner of aquatic animals ; the lobster darting 

 backwards with a powerful tail-stroke across the pool ; the 

 butterflies flitting like sunbeams among the flowers. But 



Fig. 3.— Humming-birds (Florisuga mellivora) visiting flowers. (From Belt.) 



are not all the delights of form and colour and movement 

 expressed in the songs of the birds in spring ? 



I am quite willing to allow that this beauty is in one 

 sense a relative quality, varying with the surroundings 

 and education, and even ancestral history, of those who 

 appreciate it. A flower which seems beautiful to a bee 

 may be unattractive to a bird, a bird may choose her mate 

 for qualities by no means winsome to human eyes, and a 



