ache COR oll Nh The ig ea Tee ee a DR A ie ae 
a nei, aaah eel IGANG, tas 
` a x 
436 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
ory of Natural Selection.” Mr. Bennett maintains that in those 
cases where a butterfly mimics exactly the external facies of a 
species belonging to a different tribe, the amount of change in the 
direction of the species ultimately mimicked which can have been 
established in a single generation, is so small as to be absolutely 
useless to the individual, and hence, according to one of the car- 
dinal principles of the Darwinian hypothesis, cannot have been 
brought about by natural selection. He then traces a connection, 
which he believes to have been overlooked hitherto, between the 
development of the power of mimicry or protective resemblance, 
and that of instinct, in the various classes of the animal kingdom, 
and argues that their parallelism must result from some connec- 
tion between these phenomena. In conclusion, he contends that 
Mr. Wallace’s abandonment of the theory of natural selection, in 
accounting for the development of man and of the various races 
of mankind, is inconsistent and illogical, and that whatever “ intel- 
ligence,” as Mr. Wallace expresses it, has been operative in the 
origination of man, the same principle must have been at work 
also in the various lower races of animals. In reply, Mr. Wal- 
lace and other naturalists maintain that the steps necessary to 
transform a butterfly from its normal facies to one imitating 6x- 
actly an entirely different butterfly of another genus, need not be 
so numerous as is generally supposed; and that each step may — 
be proved to be directly beneficial to the individual; and hence- 
natural selection is amply sufficient to account for the whole phe — 
nomenon. In a subsequent number (Dec. 22) Mr. A. Murray” ; 
attributes the phenomenon of mimicry to an entirely different 
cause, that of hybridization, drawing a parallel between the hy- 
bridization which he assumes in Lepidoptera and that which is — 
known to take place in plants. This theory is strongly opposed 
by other entomologists, mainly on the ground that it is unsup- 
ported by observed facts, and that from the crossing of plants 
belonging to different species of the same genus, no assu 
can be made that butterflies belonging to entirely different genera 
and even orders can possibly hybridize. — The Academy. 
Move or Lire or tae Sucktne-Fisn AND Priot-Fiset. — Pro 
fessor Van Beneden has ascertained the nature of the food of 
these two forms of fishes. The sucking-fish has § ee 
supposed to derive its nourishment from the sharks, to whieh 
